Crescent Dunes

From the window of an airplane high above Nevada, the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Facility is a bright flash on the landscape. You can really only appreciate its enormity from the ground: 1,670 acres of desert blanketed with 10,347 billboard-sized mirrors that generate enough electricity to power 75,000 homes.

The power plant sits outside Tonapah, a dot in the desert midway between Las Vegas and Reno. Each mirror is 37 feet wide and 24 feet tall, and focuses thermal energy on a tower filled with molten salt, which is used to generate steam, which spins turbines that generate electricity.

Reuben Wu first saw the sprawling solar farm a few years ago flying from Chicago to San Francisco. “I was startled by how bright it was,” he says. “It looked like a fake sun.”

He finally visited the place in March. He worked at dusk and dawn, when the light is best and the mirrors make their most dramatic movements to align with the sun. Despite their size, they move almost silently amid the sound of the wind blowing through the structures.  

Wu used a Phase One 100XF camera for stills and a Canon 5D to make a time-lapse video of the array following the sun, with music composed by Zak Marcom. He even got to drive under the mirrors. “It was like being in a forest of metal and glass,” Wu says. A forest of metal and seen from the sky but best appreciated from the ground. 

(Wired: THE BURNING BEAUTY OF SOLAR ENERGY IN THE NEVADA DESERT

Words: CHARLEY LOCKE  12.01.16.) 

The full moon rises over distant mountains and a field of solar panels at sunset, as a photographer captures the scene enriched by mesmerizing drone light painting.
Rows of solar panels reflect light at sunset, set against distant mountains and a clear sky, creating a futuristic landscape perfect for any photographer.
Rows of large, blue solar panels are angled toward the sky in a geometric, futuristic pattern, capturing a scene that could inspire any photographer.
Large solar panels stand in rows against a sunset sky, their geometric patterns resembling a fine artist’s composition, generating renewable energy.
Rows of solar panels reflecting blue light, stretching into the distance against a dark background—an impressive scene of nighttime landscape photography.
Rows of solar panels are illuminated with blue light in a dark outdoor setting, while a photographer captures the scene enhanced by mesmerizing drone light painting effects.
Solar panels under a starry night sky with distant mountains and city lights glowing on the horizon, captured with the eye of a fine artist specializing in nighttime landscape photography.
Rows of solar panels curve across a field at sunset, with mountains silhouetted in the background, creating a futuristic landscape reminiscent of drone light art.
The full moon rises over distant mountains and a field of solar panels at sunset, as a photographer captures the scene enriched by mesmerizing drone light painting.
Rows of solar panels reflect light at sunset, set against distant mountains and a clear sky, creating a futuristic landscape perfect for any photographer.
Rows of large, blue solar panels are angled toward the sky in a geometric, futuristic pattern, capturing a scene that could inspire any photographer.
Large solar panels stand in rows against a sunset sky, their geometric patterns resembling a fine artist’s composition, generating renewable energy.
Rows of solar panels reflecting blue light, stretching into the distance against a dark background—an impressive scene of nighttime landscape photography.
Rows of solar panels are illuminated with blue light in a dark outdoor setting, while a photographer captures the scene enhanced by mesmerizing drone light painting effects.
Solar panels under a starry night sky with distant mountains and city lights glowing on the horizon, captured with the eye of a fine artist specializing in nighttime landscape photography.
Rows of solar panels curve across a field at sunset, with mountains silhouetted in the background, creating a futuristic landscape reminiscent of drone light art.