See This Monument to Utahns Appetite for Scams and Greed

If you ever drive Highway 257 on the way to Delta, you will see a structure that looks like it might have been an old military installation or maybe some defunct carnival ride. Turns out, it is a multi-level solar scam that cost millions of dollars. 

Testament to Greed and Waste 

Tall, rusted poles hold up round metal steel that looks like a clover leaf fan or the bottom of a drone propeller. There are 10 to 15 of the structures standing in lines in the desert landscape along the highway. 

Back in 2008 to 2018, the government was offering incentives for solar power. R. Gregory Shepard and Neldon Johnson from Utah saw an opportunity and formed a company that planned to build an experimental solar array funded by these credits. 

The two men formed a company and told investors the technology was groundbreaking and was already producing significant energy to the electrical grid. What they were really selling was a way to claim tax credits from the government. 

Federal Judge Shuts Down the Project 

The men claimed their solar lense technology was already generating tons of electricity and they began to build the massive sculptures in the field near Delta. Concerns mounted as the only thing that was produced was tax credits doled out by the U.S. Treasury. 

The case was brought before a Federal Judge who found the testimony of Johnson confusing and frustrating. The judge shut the whole thing down and fined the men and the company 50 million dollars. 

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Even though it was only 2018 when this happened, the solar lenses are quickly eroding and returning to mother earth. It is a kind of an art piece to government waste, dishonesty, and the power of greed.