Dunlap et al.: A Dead Sea of Solar Panels
In “A Dead Sea of Solar Panels:” Solar Enclosure, Extractivism and the Progressive Degradation of the California Desert, Alexander Dunlap (Global Development Studies, University of Helsinki), Benjamin Sovacool, and Bojana Novaković (both Institute for Global Sustainability, Boston University) discuss the spread of solar energy projects in the Mojave Desert and the overlooked negative impact on the environment and the people who live there.
The authors note the rapid spread of solar panel projects in the Mojave and Colorado Deserts beginning in 2006 when the Bureau of Land Management opened the lands up for developers. Since then, there have been 234 solar farms built in the Mojave Desert alone.
This article focuses on Desert Center, a town of 100 to 200 people in the Chuckwalla Valley between Los Angeles and Phoenix. To gauge the residents’ reaction to the increase in solar projects, the authors conducted a qualitative study drawing on both informal and semi-structured interviews and on feedback from focus groups which included people who work in the solar parks. The interviews followed an analytical framework that considered four areas of impact on the place and people who live there: changing land ownership, un-inclusive planning practices, harmful ecological effects, and wealth and social inequities.
The authors discovered community frustration with lack of access to information, development of projects on three sides of their community a few hundred feet from homes, rising electricity prices, and the threat of water shortages as more water is needed to control the dust storms spurred by the destruction of the deep-root vegetation systems.
Although deserts are often seen as uninhabited wastelands, the authors emphasize the importance of recognizing the ecological destruction caused by solar projects in these places and the impact of these projects on the people who live there. They advocate for both continued lower-carbon energy systems and improvements to the current land planning system.
