Do We Really Need Desert Solar Farms? It Depends.

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To really answer this question, let’s start with a thought experiment.

If it were completely up to me, I’d sell my house, buy a Silverado EV, and buy two large campers. One camper would only be moved twice a year between modest basecamps. One would be in the desert for the winter months, and the other would be in the mountains for the summer months. The other would be used for regular travel. Both trailers would be absolutely covered in solar panels, have lots of battery storage inside, and be mostly self-sufficient powering an all-electric set of appliances and HVAC equipment.

The truck would be set up to power the traveling camper whenever solar power fell short, and excess solar that the camper’s batteries couldn’t soak up would be used to charge the truck, taking full advantage of the massive storage. Power could even be “picked up” at charging stations for the campsite. 

I’d even be free from sewer and water hookups by using composting toilets, water filtering from natural sources, and possibly even some grey water recycling. I’d be almost totally self-sufficient, never pay a utility bill, and only occasionally pay for camping space, and never owe rent, mortgage, or a car payment.

Ideally, this kind of a setup could be translated to structures and systems of any size. A typical suburban house is a lot larger than the average camper, but also has a lot more roof space. The same is true for warehouses, warehouse-style stores, and many other businesses. Even more urbanized areas tend to have a lot of space for panels on rooftops, over parking lots, and possibly even over streets and other public works.

Where The Problems Come Up

So, why don’t we just put solar over everything, put batteries in all the nooks and crannies, and power everything from the smallest towns to the biggest cities with clean energy? The devil is in the details.

For one, there’s the problem of paying for it. There’s plenty of money being paid to utility companies to finance solar power buildouts, but nobody wants to rent their roof to the local utility and the local utility doesn’t want to rent your roof. In most countries, the roof is private property, and the owner of the roof (be it atop a suburban house or a skyscraper) ends up needing to pay for the solar. Not everybody can’t afford this, and many people don’t even want it. Debt-to-income ratios make it tough for many people to afford a solar array even if it’s cheaper than what they’re paying the electric company.

Another problem is that tall buildings don’t have much roof space. A skyscraper has lots of room inside that needs heated, cooled, lit, and entertained, but it has very little space on top, making it tough for solar to keep up. The sides of some buildings might get sun, but vertical panels are less ideal and don’t generate enough power to cover the needs inside.

Finally, not every city or town is a good match for solar. Here in the southwest where I live, there’s plenty of sun almost all the time, but in other places, it’s possible to have cloudy and rainy weather for weeks at a time. Cities further north get fewer hours of sunlight every day, especially in the winter months. There’s also tall vegetation in many places that shades rooftops and parking lots for part of the day (another thing I don’t have in the desert southwest). Even the terrain in some places can shorten solar production time.

With all of these obstacles, it becomes necessary to put at least some of the solar panels outside of town or even in faraway places where conditions are better.

The Problem With Putting Solar Panels On “Worthless” Desert Land

Letters to the Editor: California's deserts are majestic. Think before covering them with solar farms https://t.co/7mBP0xbfvS

— Ileene Anderson (@AndersonIleene) October 20, 2024

Here’s the thing: it’s easy to look at the desert and assume that it’s like the surface of the moon. Some spots actually look like the moon, with no visible signs of life, not even plants. So, if you live in a lush, green place, these deserts might seem like the ideal location for a solar farm. After all, only some short bushes and weeds are using the land at most, and the sunlight is about right.

But, that’s a superficial way to look at the desert. Even in salt flats, there’s moisture and life below the surface. When it’s wetter, that life bursts forth at the surface and provides a pit stop for birds making transcontinental trips.

This is Great Salt Lake today near Ogden Bay, east of the tip of Promontory Point. Just a few months ago it was completely dry. There’s only a few inches, but it’s keeping the dust down AND creating habitat for a bazillion birds! Thanks @DucksUnlimited for the tour. pic.twitter.com/aTVYXY1x1Z

— Leia Larsen (@LeiaLarsen) April 12, 2023

How wet has it been in West Texas recently? Traces of Texas reader Christi Pearson was out near the Guadalupe Mountains a recently and took this shot of the temporary lake that is covering the big salt flat that is out there. 2nd photo is one of my own, showing a normal view. pic.twitter.com/D4172gmiRf

— Traces of Texas (@TracesofTexas) August 28, 2021

No matter where you go in the desert, there’s hidden life and ecological value. Tearing up large areas and putting in solar panels means paying an environmental cost of some kind or another. If nothing else, the natural beauty (something people who don’t live in the desert tend to appreciate more) is lost when too much of the landscape gets covered in solar farms. Recreational opportunities can be lost, and tourism can suffer.

So, we don’t want to just take the path of least resistance and just put all of the panels out in the desert.

A Better, More Balanced Way Forward

The fact is that many (but not all) of the obstacles to solar power in urban and suburban areas are a matter of public policy and our financial system and not natural barriers to the technology working. Instead of giving up and pillaging the desert, we should first try to dismantle those non-natural barriers.

Rooftop solar shouldn’t be something people have to take a traditional loan out for. Ability to pay one’s power bill should be proof enough that a solar system of an appropriate size is in financial reach. All of the other nonsense, like credit scoring and debt-to-income ratios is silly when you consider the obvious, proven ability to afford electricity.

Another thing that should be considered is to make it easier to let utilities rent space over buildings and parking lots. Property owners don’t all want to pay for solar or be involved in that decision. They have other things to do. But, if utilities could use a simple mechanism to just pay for the space, and a property owner could just receive a check every month without having to lift a finger, we’d see solar panels popping up all over the place.

I’m sure readers have many other ideas, but the bottom line is this: we should focus on building on land that has already been disrupted before we go out disrupting more land for clean energy, at least when we can.

Featured image by Jennifer Sensiba.