Solar Ceilings for Farmland, Coal Mines, Desert
Almost 3,000 acres of California’s Mojave Desert will soon be permanently shaded by solar panels. On January 11, the Biden administration gave approval for two large solar projects just south of Joshua Tree National Park. Federal officials have indicated they’re ready to approve a third plant in the same area. The trio of projects will generate 1,000 megawatts of solar electricity – enough to power about 150,000 homes.
These solar installations arrive as the global economy flirts with a shift from fossil fuel reliance to renewable power investment. They are also drawing criticism, if not outright opposition, from environmentalists concerned about developing wilderness areas in the name of energy production.
Between 1.5 and 3 million acres of land will be needed to meet California’s 100-percent renewable energy goals alone, according to The Nature Conservancy, and better options for situating solar projects may be available. Subprime farmland in the San Joaquin Valley is already being converted to solar electricity generation, and research published last year in Nature Sustainability assessed the potential for placing linear panel arrays over California’s long irrigation canals, where shading water will provide the added benefit of reducing costly evaporation.
More controversial is the use of prime farmland, still productive and healthy, for these projects. This shift, underway now in the Midwest, naturally cuts into food and feed production and, more subjectively, can upset the traditional agrarian character of rural farming communities. However, great financial incentive is fueling this trend. According to recent reporting by NPR, farmers who replace photosynthesis with photovoltaics can make two or three times the money. And a growing contingent of farmers choose the best of both worlds by “intercropping” solar panels alongside certain crops.
Another category of solar array placement would locate the clean electricity factories on defunct mines, shuttered landfills, and remediated toxic waste sites. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has identified 130,000 potential locations of this sort across the country for renewable energy projects. To date, fewer than 500 have been developed, according to the New York Times.
Photo: US Department of Energy.
But the age of solar investment is still young, and a landscape transformation is happening. In Martin County, Kentucky, for instance, the abandoned Martiki coal mine is slated for conversion into a 200-megawatt solar farm covering hundreds of acres. The plan has garnered support, even within a community founded on what former President Donald Trump called “beautiful, clean coal.” This sort of land-use conversion can restore value to the scarred, polluted acreage of retired mines while providing jobs. There is also a symbolic effect in overlaying the glimmering youth of the solar industry on the ruins of the fossil fuel era.
In the Mojave Desert, solar panels aren’t the only clean-energy infrastructure settling into the scorching sands. The Ivanpah solar thermal project, launched in 2013, has been the source of as much controversy as electricity, as environmentalists have decried the facility as a desecration of wilderness.
The Sahara Desert has also become the target for questionable solar electricity plans. Vast sprawls of panels there could generate electricity for hundreds of millions of people – but modeling has shown they could also have severe global climate impacts. In an article in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists predicted that heat radiating off the solar panels could disrupt global air and moisture circulation, even causing droughts as far away as the Amazon rainforest.
Residential rooftops are a relatively uncontroversial use of dead space for generating clean electricity, but this could potentially become an equity issue if government rebates for installations mostly flow to wealthier Americans who can afford new Teslas and home renovations.
There will be costs to building any energy project, and fossil fuel industries have revealed, among other things, a vein of scientific fact – that no energy comes for free.
Other Recent Posts
How Can I Get Clean, Green, Climate-Forward Job Training in the Bay Area?
Looking for a hands-on job working outdoors that actually pays? Here’s a list of training programs.
Santa Rosa Residents Rethink Trees
The heat-burdened Roseland neighborhood is learning how to monitor temperatures and developing an action plan focused on tree shade.
How to Make Conservation a Career
California nonprofits are developing paid apprenticeships to prepare workers for the growing ecological restoration economy.
Raft of Resilience Initiatives Keeps Tahoe Blue
Beach robots, boat inspections, forest thinning, and wetland restoration are among the projects helping the lake confront environmental threats.
Weathering the Present While Training for the Future
A stewardship immersion experience from the School for Inclement Weather and Weaving Earth combines ecological knowledge and spiritual connection.
Feds Meddling With Protections For California Coast
NOAA is reviewing California’s Coastal Management Program in a renewed push for offshore oil and gas drilling.
New Study Shows Rain Gardens Filter Chemicals Out of Stormwater
Scientists found rain gardens dramatically reduce toxic chemicals in stormwater while providing biodiversity and cooling.
The Tricky Art of Growing Oysters in the Lab So They Can Survive in the Field
The Nature Conservancy, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, and others are growing oysters in the lab and planting them in the wild in estuaries around San Francisco Bay.
Printing Without Plastic: The Vintage Machine Winning Over Eco-Conscious Artists
This comic guide to risograph printing explains how the 1980s Japanese machine cuts energy use and avoids plastic toner.
East Bay Kids Fight Extreme Heat in their Schoolyards
Many California schools are ill-equipped to tackle heat, with many campuses lacking sufficient tree coverage. These students are fighting to change that.
More
- Bay Area Leads Nation on Floating Solar (KneeDeep Times)
- Climate Change in California (The Nature Conservancy)
- Oakland Invades the Desert (East Bay Express)
- Energy and water co-benefits from covering canals with solar panels (Nature Sustainability)
- Midwest farmers are split on whether to use farmland for big solar plans (NPR)
- Coming Soon to This Coal County: Solar, in a Big Way (The New York Times)
- Impacts of Large‐Scale Sahara Solar Farms on Global Climate and Vegetation Cover (Geophysical Research Letters)
- Stepping UP in 2021: #1 How agri-PV could address two of the biggest sustainability challenges of our times (PV Magazine)
