A little more than a decade ago, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System opened to great fanfare, with a $1.6 billion loan guarantee from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)—part of the Obama administration's push to install green energy production on public lands—and a promise to help California meet its increasingly ambitious decarbonization goals.

At the time, it was the world's largest solar plant, its nearly 4,000 acres covered in a blinding array of high-tech mirrors, arranged in supplication around three 450-foot towers. It nearly doubled the amount of solar thermal energy then produced in the United States, according to the DOE.

Originally, the project had an estimated operational life of 50 years, according to the final environmental impact statement. Its two buyers, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E), had purchase agreements through 2039.