World’s largest solar power plant sets fire to itself due to ‘mirror misalignment’

Sunlight burnt through electrical wiring

The plant cost more than $2 billion and officially opened in 2014 (Getty)

An energy-generating tower at the world’s largest solar power plant was shut down after a combination of mirrors and sunlight started a fire.

Flames were reported from the ninth floor at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in Nevada, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department.

The fire at the two-year-old plant was just “smouldering” by the time the fire crew arrived on Thursday morning as staff had handled the flames with a fire extinguisher.

They said it had started due to a mirror misalignment which had caused sunlight to burn through electrical wiring.

The plant, situated in the Mojave Desert near Las Vegas, uses large mirrors to reflect sunlight to boilers which stand on top of three 459-feet towers.

Energy from the sun heats the water to more than 1,000 degrees, creating the steam that spins the power-generating turbines.

Yet this week it was discovered that some of its 350,000 mirrors were wrongly positioned to focus sunlight on a different spot, as Capitan Mike McClintock told the Associated Press.

Only one of three towers is in operation as workers repair the damaged cables and carry out maintenance work.

The plant was also criticised for scorching birds to death, as dozens of dead animals were discovered near the plant with singed wings or feathers.

In 2014 news reports claimed the plant was only producuing about half of its expected annual output.

The California Energy Commission blamed “clouds, jet contrails and weather".

Read more on solar panels