Moving Right Along

So it looks like Ken Salazar has given the final green light to the first two of several large solar projects in the Mojave Desert.  One is expected to generate 709 megawatts, which is huge for a solar plant.  For context, a typical coal plant generates 500 megawatts.  Of course, to generate that much power a solar plant has to be huge; this one covers 6,360 acres.  In contrast, even a big coal plant like the Big Bend Power Station in Florida, with a capacity of nearly 1,800 megawatts, covers only about 1,500 acres.  This is what people mean when they say solar power is land-intensive.  There’s no shortage of sunlight, but capturing enough of it to seriously displace coal and other fossil fuels would require vast amounts of land.  Of course, the BLM has vast amounts of land, much of it in very sunny areas such as the Mojave Desert, which is why these solar projects on BLM land are so important and it’s good to see them going forward.