Associated Press
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System near Primm uses more than 300,000 mirrors to focus sunlight on boilers atop 459-foot power towers heating water into steam to create electricity.
Wednesday, May 25, 2016 | 1:11 p.m.
PRIMM — Officials say the huge Mojave Desert solar-thermal power plant damaged last week by fire could be back online within three weeks.
David Knox, spokesman for plant operator NRG Energy, said Wednesday that mirrors misaligned during maintenance focused sunbeams in such a way that fire was sparked May 19.
Knox says new safeguards will prevent the problem from happening again at Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.
The sprawling plant uses mirrors to focus sunlight on boilers at the top of three 459-foot towers, creating steam that drive turbines to produce electricity.
The facility on the California-Nevada border is the largest of its kind in the world.
Nobody was injured in the fire.
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