Awe-inspiring images of world’s biggest solar farm -

These incredible pictures show the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert near the border between California and Nevada.It opened earlier this month after years of regulatory and legal wrangling, which ranged from relocating protected tortoises to assessing the impact on Mojave milkweed, and is now generating enough green power for 140,000 homes.Now federal officials have announced two more massive solar power plants in the sun-soaked desert, a move which ironically has angered environmentalists who fear the impact that the facilities will have on the area's ecosystem.They have also expressed concern after it emerged that birds flying past the site were bursting into flames from the heat.Solar thermal plants like the Ivanpah complex and the two new ones proposed use hundreds of thousands of computer controlled mirrors to focus sunlight on boilers which sit on tall towers. The concentrated rays boil water which becomes steam which drives turbines to create electricity with no carbon emissions. (dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az