The Art of Solar Energy

Photographer Jamey Stillings takes to the air to capture new perspectives of the Crescent Dunes solar project in Nevada.

This story appears in the June 2016 issue of  National Geographic magazine. 

Our environmental problems are easy to see. But what do the solutions look like? This project—a series of aerial shots taken above the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Plant near Tonopah, Nevada—is my attempt to document our efforts to build a more sustainable future.

I’ve always been interested in the intersection of nature and human activity. Whenever we use the land and its resources, there’s a nuanced tension involved. We’ve come to rely on our smartphones, cars, and computers, yet to create them we often exploit the Earth’s finite resources.

Photographing from a helicopter, I aim to show what an alternative energy source looks like—both the visual delight of its shapes and shadows and the way it fits into the context of the

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