The Problem:
At a meeting with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) at a small rural desert town in late 2008, we were told what plans outside corporations have for us, and for our beautiful wide open spaces. Several large solar facilities are being speculated on public lands in the deserts of southern California and western Nevada. 



Permit applications are pouring in to BLM offices in Tonopah and Las Vegas to secure land. Most of the solar facilities will be wet cooled solar trough or Fresnel mirror systems and will require about 5 acre feet per of water per megawatt. Because there are several proposals, the amount of water that will be needed is significant. The largest current concentrated solar plants today generate 80 megawatts (Mw) of electricity (on good days); the Beacon solar project in Kern County uses 6.4 acre-feet per Mw, adding up to 1600 acre-feet in a year. With five or six of these proposed in Amargosa Valley alone at potentially 200 to 1,000 megawatts each, it looks as though the potential use of groundwater would be enormous. Tom Seley, the field manager of the Tonopah BLM office said that the locals should "be concerned".

The water would come from the Amargosa River/ Ash Meadows aquifer. Aside from the obvious blemish this would inflict upon the landscape, the impacts to biodiversity and rare desert springs are unmistakable. Water use of this magnitude could have severe impacts to the water level in Devil's Hole, endangering the Devil's Hole pupfish even more than it already is as well as the many rare and some endangered species in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge. The Ash Meadows region has the highest number of endemic species of any place its size in the United States.

Such an extreme water withdrawal could dry up parts of the Amargosa River near Shoshone/Tecopa. This water is the source of fossil water that keeps the springs in nearby Death Valley National Park flowing. BLM has not yet started National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) work, "but is getting close." This would include studying potential impacts on animals like the Desert tortoise and on rare plants, as well as archaeological, tribal, and historical resources.

Areas for the solar reflector plants need to be flat or less than 3% slope, although some companies say they will terrace. The land will be basically sterilized, graded. Some companies are applying for "phase 1" applications, with the intent of applying for "phase 2 and 3" projects in the future. Not all will be permitted. Other companies are "stacking" into applying for the same areas of land, if the first-in-line application company does not get permitted. For some areas there are 3 companies in line to try to get a permit for the same acreage.
To the credit of BLM and Tom Seley, BLM is trying to recommend companies use disturbed land, such as waste rock piles.

Concentrated solar power leaves a big footprint in natural habitats and is often distant from cities. Concentrated solar power reflectors, unlike photovoltaic panels, need to be cleaned heavily out in the desert. The steam cycle requires 8% of the total water consumption in these plants, but by far the largest use is cooling towers in traditional wet-cooled plants (which will be the dominant type in the Amargosa Desert). Ninety percent of water consumption goes into the cooling system to transfer waste heat into the environment. 800 to 1,000 gallons of water are consumer per megawatt-hour.

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge has many springs, lakes and wetlands fed by the underground aquifer in the Amargosa Desert. Endemic pupfish live in this spring. Roughly 60,000 acres of the Amargosa Desert in California and Nevada has been targeted for solar development. Brian Brown of the Amargosa Conservancy calculated that the amount of water needed if all this happened would equal twice the annual recharge of the entire Amargosa Basin.

If these large CSP plants were built next to cities they could take avantage of treating city wasteater as their source. Most companies are going to California and Arizona first, to get sites by major existing powerlines. Nevada has a lack of powerlines, so the future cost of alternative energy should factor the cost of the transmission infrastructure in as well. Plans are being made to place major powerlines in Nevada, following the Western Energy Corridor map. One proposed powerline would come right through the middle of Oasis Valley and Beatty. BLM commented that this should be removed out of Oasis Valley wetlands and Amargosa toad habitat (a BLM sensitive species), and out of the town of Beatty. Other conflicts with local residents and biodiverse habitats will likely occur.

The alternative? Relocalize: photovoltaic and microturbine on rooftops IN THE CITY, so no need to build a $trillion grid to transport energy from the Southwest to distant cities.

See www.basinandrangewatch.org/SolarDesert for more....