Vegas Magazine - Niche Media - There is a place beyond the crowds, beyond the ropes, where dreams are realized and success is celebrated. You are invited.
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/149326
S uperlatives PEOPLE, CULTURE, TASTE, STYLE POWER STRIP Here Comes the Sun NEAR NEVADA'S BORDER, NRG ENERGY CEO DAVID CRANE IS GETTING READY TO FLIP THE SWITCH ON THE WORLD'S LARGEST SOLAR THERMAL PLANT—AND PERHAPS POWER A REVOLUTION. BY BRET LOVE From vast solar fields to consumers generating power at home, this Fortune 500 exec has a radical vision for energy. VEGASMAGAZINE.COM 061-062_V_SP_PowerStrip_Sept13.indd 61 PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF GALE A bout 45 miles southwest of Vegas, in the Mojave Desert's Ivanpah Dry Lake, David Crane is leading a project that should give a turbocharged boost to America's clean-energy revolution. Known as the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, the $2.2 billion venture boasts some impressive stats. It uses 347,000 heliostat mirrors to generate a minimum of 392 megawatts of electricity, and in offsetting 450,000 tons of carbon emissions every year, Ivanpah will be the largest solar thermal plant in the world. It's a stunning feather in Crane's cap, the culmination of his 10 years as president and CEO of NRG Energy, lead investor in the Ivanpah project. But it actually began under a different company's watch. "This technology—mirrors pointed at a boiler in the sky—was developed by a company called BrightSource," says Crane, a Princeton graduate with a doctorate from Harvard. "They started to develop the Ivanpah project, and we got involved around 2009. It was really only after the Obama administration started offering federal loan guarantees [to green energy companies] that we got interested and committed to the project. The Department of Energy's loan guarantee program was a key part of the equation." continued on page 62 61 8/6/13 1:56 PM