Bigger, better, faster, more - II.A matter of scale: the cultural and environmental impact of big solar

reprint Eighty miles east of Palm Springs, California, eight million solar panels lean toward the sky, their deep blue shine a modern oasis interrupting the brown dust of the Mojave Desert. Known as Desert Sunlight, the solar power plant is the first of its kind and promises to provide 550 megawatts (MW) of clean energy powering over 150,000 homes in California (a few percent of the state's total power consumption). Such large amounts of power from one, 3000-acre solar installation have been unheard of until now, hinting at a revolution in large-scale renewable energy generation that could compete with fossil-fuel-based power plants. Not so fast, say Native American tribes and environmentalists, who protest these solar plants due to their impact on sacred heritage lands and native species. The ongoing debate shines an important light on the fact that renewables introduce unique environmental and cultural impacts. These issues may rest in a blind spot for policymakers trying to reduce fossil fuel emissions at all costs or private companies taking advantage of renewable energy mandates and subsidies to cultivate successful business ventures.

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A beneficial political climate and plummeting costs of solar panels has made the Desert Sunlight plant possible. California has set strict mandates to produce a third of their energy from renewables by 2020, opening a market for such a large-scale project. To construct such a power plant with a million individual panels, each solar cell must be extremely cheap. First Solar, the private company behind the project, decided to use cadmium telluride cells, which require significantly less material and cost less compared to traditional silicon cells (with a slight sacrifice in efficiency), allowing them to manufacture the millions of panels necessary to reach MW levels of power generation. The Mojave Desert is the perfect location to try such a novel way of generating renewable power on a large scale. The sun shines at least 300 days each year, annual rainfall reaches only several inches, and the desert is close enough to larger cities to easily connect to the electrical grid, all factors which are crucial to ensure reliable power generation to pay for the large capital costs of such a power plant. The success of an ambitious project like Desert Sunlight has not gone unnoticed as at least 10 other large-scale plants are planned for the same region, which means the Mojave Desert may soon be swarming with construction sites. All of the above sounds great from an economic and clean energy perspective. Unfortunately, that's only part of the story. The Mojave Desert does not reside in a vacuum waiting for power plants to be built. Quite the opposite, as several Native American tribes have lived in the region for generations alongside a diverse desert ecosystem. The Mohave, Chemehuevi, Hopi, and Navajo make up the Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) that live on a reservation along the Colorado River just east of Desert Sunlight. Companies that want to follow the example set by First Solar must obtain land grants from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to allow private construction on the federal lands surrounding the reservation. However, much of this region contains sacred lands, buried artifacts, and relics important to these Native American tribes. To try to prevent the destruction and desecration and of artifacts and lands, CRIT has filed a lawsuit against the federal government to try to delay the issue of land grants given to private companies by the BLM. The US government has been careful to try to recover and relocate artificats important to the tribes, however the lawsuit claims that the tribes "experience significant spiritual harm when such resources are dug up, relocated or damaged"². In addition, archaeological surveys often miss artifact locations, leading to their destruction when the ground is dug up in preparation for new plant construction. In their defense, the BLM claims they have met with CRIT representatives and other tribes to ensure respectful treatment of the sacred lands; however, the tribes claim that BLM has not gone far enough to respect their spiritual heritage. Discussions appear to be at an impasse, and plans for new solar plant construction appear to be moving forward despite the lawsuit. . Read the entire reprint ... // empowered by scharnhorst-csa.blogspot.com).

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