The enormous solar power plant in the middle of the Mojave Desert just began operation yesterday. The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System will be generating about 30 percent of all the solar thermal energy that’ll be produced in entire United States.

It’s got three 459-foot towers, surrounded by more than 300,000 mirrors the size of garage doors, ready to soak up all that Mojave sunlight. The heat generated is so concentrated it is resulting steam power turbines to generate electricity.

They mirrors are so hot that it's also been scorching birds.

The plant will be able to power 140,000 homes in California, which has long been a proponent of clean energy.

[Ivanpah Solar, via Verge]