Struggles Over California, Arizona Desert Solar Power

When Arizona Governor Jan Brewer (R) spoke earlier this week about the need to ramp up clean energy production in the state, she raised a few hackles by emphasizing her interest in nuclear power. It’s not a renewable technology, of course, but it’s emissions-free, and as we all know the list of pros and cons might as well be endless for all the controversy it causes. The Arizona Times pointed out that the last nuclear plant in the country was completed two decades ago about an hour outside of Phoenix. Since then, we’ve steered clear, but Brewer thinks nuclear should not only be part of the state’s energy solution moving forward, but the “cornerstone”.

Where’s the solar love gone, you may rightly ask? Deciding exactly how to become less dependent on natural gas–the state’s major energy source–is a challenge for the state that’s so rich in some resources while so poor in others. The solar industry has hoisted Arizona as a poster child for utility scale solar precisely because of the limitless availability of sunlight. The state offers huge tracts of unpopulated land with some of the highest insolation values in the world. But desert solar development hits snags at the environmental level, where the scarcity of water and the delicacy of desert ecosystems come very much into play. Some solar technologies do require a hefty water supply–Concentrating Solar Power, or CSP, uses solar to make steam that powers turbines–but standard photovoltaics are in this way much lower impact than nuclear power. Brewer did also say she’s “committed to making Arizona the solar capital of the world”, a task that may get a bit trickier if new legislation comes on the scene.

The solar industry has been on the edge of its seat for months now with respect to the possibilities of far stricter regulation of desert solar development. Late in 2009, U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein (D–CA) introduced a bill that strives to balance ecological considerations with solar growth in the desert. The bill would put a huge portion of the Mojave Desert off-limit to developers (to the tune of 1,000,000 acres), yet includes provisions to make the review and approval process for solar development faster and more accurately targeted at the best possible sites. This came not long after the “Solar Roadmap Bill”, introduced by U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords (D–AZ), was approved in the House. The Roadmap is intended to facilitate solar growth with effective goal-making and communication across the industry, a good complement to legislation like Feinstein’s.

A thoughtful analysis in The New York Times today examines the degree to which Feinstein’s “California Desert Protection Act” would promote, rather than discourage, solar development. The bill addresses development concerns that will directly affect the solar industries in Arizona, California, and Nevada, and that will set a precedent for desert solar development across the country.