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This is Ivanpah, a solar power facility in the Mojave Desert. Fifteen years ago they got a $1.6 billion loan from the Department of Energy. Now 11 years later, the facility is closing.Reporter: "Why did the government fund a five square mile laser death ray that kills 6,000 birds a year? That is Ivanpah, a solar farm in the Mojave Desert. And the birdpocalypse isn't even the biggest part of this boondoggle.""So fifteen years ago, Google, NRG Energy, and BrightSource Energy got together for this idea. They would sell solar power to PG&E and California Edison until 2039. But they needed funding, so Bechtel, who's a big government contractor, helped them get a $1.6 billion loan from the Department of Energy.""See all those mirrors? Yeah, there's 350,000 of them, and each one is the size of a garage door. They reflect sunlight onto boilers 450 feet high as part of the solar thermal process. The project promised to create a thousand construction jobs and power 140,000 homes. And that didn't happen.""In theory, everyone would benefit—from workers and local communities to politicians pushing green energy. Now, the facility opened in 2014, and it didn't take long to realize that mirrors attract bugs, and birds eat bugs, and mirrors themselves get really hot. The reflected rays at Ivanpah literally singed birds to death mid-air, leaving clouds of smoke called streamers.""The project was also terrible for desert tortoises and destroyed irreplaceable pristine desert habitat. But the real problem was about power. Ivanpah only operated at half capacity. Apparently, officials hadn't considered things like weather or equipment challenges impacting energy production—you know, like they should have.""NRG said it could take years for Ivanpah to hit its annual energy goals. In the meantime, they used natural gas to operate the boilers. So much so that they even needed state approval to increase the gas limit. Turns out the sun didn't shine as much as everyone hoped, and the facility could no longer compete with newer, more efficient technology. Today, Ivanpah employs 61 people, but soon it will be zero.""PG&E ended their contract 15 years early, and Ivanpah will close two of its three units by 2026. For the American taxpayers, it's Solyndra 2.0. So, I guess this is good news for the birds. What do you think?"