The towers have boilers filled with water that turns to steam, spinning a turbine that then produces electricity. It’s a clean tech version of the Lord of the Rings as one reporter put it. What's notable here is that this contraption is not located in China or Germany or in any other traditional solar power house – the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating system, as it's called, sits in the Mojave Desert in California, and it's expected to power 140,000 American homes.

The economics of the installation have been questioned, but the project caps what many are calling a banner year for American solar power, 2013. The U.S. installed more solar capacity than Germany the world leader, marking the first time in over 15 years according to GTM research. More solar capacity has been installed in the last 18 months in America according to the industry than in the previous 30 years.

Of course, American solar power has still a long way to go – it still provides less than one percent of the nation's electricity according to the government.