The United States solar energy boom is finally taking off - in the worst way. In the Mojave desert and other federal lands across the West, utility-scale installations are putting gigawatt-hours of energy on the board and powering millions of homes. But the designs are sloppy, the labor conditions are horrific, and the environmental damage is incalculable. Ancient joshua trees are being clear cut, endangered desert tortoises are being left for dead, the vast biotic carbon stores of Mojave soils are being upturned, and the reflectivity of enormous expanses of desert are being altered, affecting the planetary climate. But it doesn't have to be this way. There's a type of energy that requires no fuel and no land. It hardly even needs transmission lines, as it can be built at the site of use: rooftop solar. Every hour of the day, rooftops across the United States soak up enough sun to generate petawatts of power. Estimates for their potential to offset US energy demand range from 13 percent to over 100. Yet at present, only around 2 percent of US energy is generated by rooftop. And then there's land area that's already been developed. Just by building solar on degraded lands, focusing on superfund sites, reservoirs, and farmland, researchers estimate we could generate more than enough to offset today's national energy demand. While there are points of dispute concerning some projections, the conclusion is clear: between the potential of degraded lands, rooftops, wind, and storage - plus existing hydro, nuclear, and other zero carbon energy sources, there's really no need to tear up the rare and fragile ecosystems of our deserts.
Source: authorrise.org
