The Promise and Peril of Solar Power
As soLAr fACiLities sPreAD, Desert wiLDLife fACes risks
By Philip Leitner, Ph.D.
Credit: Barbara M. Leitner
The challenge of moving toward energy
independence while creating new jobs and
reducing carbon emissions has captured
the national imagination. Fortunately, the United
States is endowed with abundant renewable energy
resources, including wind, geothermal, and solar.
Each presents challenges for wildlife and habitats—
perhaps none more so than solar.
on rooftops, this new revolution involves “Big Solar,” with scores of utility-scale solar power plants,
each covering hundreds or thousands of acres and
producing enough electricity to supply a small city.
Philip Leitner,
Ph.D., is an adjunct
professor and
conducts desert
wildlife research
at the Endangered
Species Recovery
Program, California
State University-
Stanislaus.
Solar power is gaining ground, with gigantic solar-energy installations rising or slated for construction
in the nation’s southwestern deserts. Most facilities
are in Arizona, California, and Nevada, where desert
sunshine is abundant and intense (see map, page
50). The diffuse nature of solar radiation, however,
requires vast arrays of solar collectors to generate
electricity. Far beyond photovoltaic panels installed
Such large-scale production occurs through four
main configurations involving either photovoltaic
assemblages or concentrating solar power technology (see sidebar, page 51). All have enormous
energy potential but require large expanses of desert land. By some estimates, 46,000 square miles
of southwestern desert could provide 69 percent of
U.S. electricity requirements by 2050 (Zweibel et
al. 2008). “With the new administration’s emphasis on renewables, and some of the [tax] breaks
and benefits of starting these projects, there’s been
a huge influx of applications,” says John Dear-
Credit: isaac Brekken for The New York Times
the Acciona Nevada solar one power plant south of Las Vegas covers more than 300 acres with curved parabolic mirrors that
concentrate solar heat, generating enough electricity for 14,000 homes. Numerous such solar projects await permits throughout the
U.s. southwest. if built, they’d wipe out thousands of acres of desert vegetation, a potential threat to native wildlife.
