Mojave Desert Blog

A cactus in bloom in the Pisgah Valley of the central Mojave Desert.  This cactus and the ecologically important desert habitat here would be destroyed by bulldozers if K Road Power begins construction of the Calico Solar power project.  The solar facility would destroy nearly 7 square miles of desert.  The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, and NRDC have filed a legal challenge , suggesting the project should be built on already-disturbed lands.

Solar Mosaic has done it again!  The organization successfully raised enough money through "crowd funding" for a rooftop solar installation in Flagstaff, Arizona.  The solar panels will adorn the top of the Murdoch Community Center, saving them over $73,000 and cutting over 347,000 pounds of CO2.  Solar Mosaic has completed funding for other rooftop solar installations in Oakland and the Navajo Nation. Photo from Solar Mosaic website.  The Murdoch Community Center in Flagstaff will soon have its own solar panels! Solar Mosaic's model is the perfect reminder that rooftop solar is an accessible option that spares our climate and wildlands from further destruction.  In addition to Solar Mosaic's victory, the City of Los Angeles also approved a feed-in-tarrif (FiT) for up to 150 megawatts of rooftop solar.  Although the FiT is focused on larger rooftop solar installations, the city will hopefully expand the program in the coming years to benefit smaller installatio

BrightSource Energy is planning its initial public offering (IPO) in NASDAQ this week.  This company touts itself as a green messiah bringing us energy from the future, yet its business model is simply unsustainable because it requires vast tracts of land and amounts of water in an ecosystem that already shoulders many public burdens.  And it does not help when they are running into conflict with State and Federal officials. Outdated Way to Harvest Clean Energy Unlike Solar City or Sungevity , BrightSource did not get the memo that the sun shines on rooftops and cities as much as it does on remote deserts.  Investing in BrightSource is like investing in a company making gramophones .  BrightSource Energy's facility design -- thousands of large mirrors focusing the sun's rays onto central power towers that heat up and generate energy -- is an archaic and destructive way of harvesting solar energy that requires years of planning, legal challenges, and new transmission lines.

Update:  You can view the proposed rule here , and send comments by 14 May to Webb.Thomas@epa.gov . You should indicate your support for the more effective "selective catalytic reduction" technology, which would help keep poisons out of the nearby community of Moapa and improve visibility in our wildlands. The Reid Gardner coal power plant casts a shadow over the Moapa Band of Paiutes, along the Muddy River in the eastern Mojave Desert.  On an annual basis, the coal plant spews three million tons of CO2,  nearly four thousand pounds of nitrogen oxides and, 71 pounds of mercury (a miniscule fraction of which is considered deadly).  Reid Gardner is a dangerous neighbor to this small community northeast of Las Vegas.  The tribe is fighting vigorously to put an end to this toxic industry, but the EPA recently proposed a rule that would permit the plant to continue operating with only marginal reductions in pollutants.  According to the EPA ruling , the costs of the most effe

Wind energy destroys land , kills birds and bats , and requires immense amounts of steel and concrete , both of which are intense polluters.  And because wind energy is so intermittent -- an unreliable source of power -- utility companies have to contract with natural gas "peaker" plants to generate energy during the times when the wind is not blowing. This means that wind energy is not an efficient means of cutting carbon emissions .  There is no free lunch when it comes to energy, but we do not have to keep ordering from the same menu.  Invest in rooftop solar and energy efficiency, and we can sharply reduce our demand for destructive energy sources like coal, and natural gas, and wind. A giant bulldozer cuts into eastern Oregon land to make way for a single wind turbine.  Photo from DOE. Construction crews cut into Joshua Tree woodland habitat in the western Mojave Desert for the Alta Wind Energy Center. Photo by Friends of Mojave . A heap of destroyed Joshua

Mr. Peter Douglas, a long-time advocate for the environment and former Executive Director of the California Coastal Commission, passed away after a fight with cancer.  I wanted to share again something he wrote in 2009 as industrial-scale solar development threatened the Carrizo Plain and other beautiful landscapes.  He advocated for a focus on distributed generation, and siting larger facilities to avoid ecological destruction. From Mr. Douglas' letter to the San Luis Obispo Board of Supervisors: I sense in pockets of our political, economic and civic world of leaders, a need to be seen as progressive facilitators and not as obstructionists in the way of new centralized industrial development of renewable energy. This is an alarming and, in the long view, a self-destructive, tragic trend because it is unnecessary and erosive of community wellbeing. Cities and Counties are entirely capable of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and generating clean, renewable, affordable energy

First Solar is putting its money behind a candidate running for the Riverside County Board of Supervisors who has a long record of turning a blind eye to toxic chemicals in our community and environment, according to campaign finance records.   First Solar almost certainly is trying to position itself to influence Riverside County policies after the current Board of Supervisors instituted a per acre fee on industrial scale solar facilities in the desert region.  The Board in November approved the fee for solar projects larger than 20 megawatts because such large facilities in remote areas incur substantial burden on county services and also are a cause of visual blight with new transmission lines.  The fees can be offset by various incentives if, for example, the solar developers do not require new transmission lines or if they hire local workers. The costs of providing county services to industrial solar projects can be substantial.   Inyo County calculated that BrightSource Energy