I am a proponent of solar energy. It has a role to play in our energy production and has, in fact, become relatively inexpensive and quick to deploy and commission. At the same time, energy storage, mostly in the form of batteries, is becoming more feasible. My biggest beef has been the footprint required for large-scale solar PV arrays. In my way of thinking, we had to essentially subtract the land used for the array from all other uses.
Fortunately,
this may not always be the case. I read, for example, that in some places,
communities use the shaded area under PV arrays as garden plots for plants that
don’t appreciate full sun. I also just read about an array constructed in
Nevada’s Mojave Desert that provided surprising benefits to the ecosystem
there.
The
Gemini Solar Project adopted a different approach during the construction
cycle. Rather than scraping the land clean in a “blade and grade” fashion,
developers preserved much of the native soil and its dormant seed bank. Years
later, researchers discovered that life had responded. Beneath the modules, a
rare desert plant known as the three-corner milk vetch began appearing in
numbers far greater than before construction. Instead of sterilizing the
landscape, the array altered it in ways that allowed certain species to
flourish. This suggests that design choices matter and that, under the right
conditions, a solar installation may influence its surroundings in ways that
extend beyond electricity production.
—Mitchell
Hegman
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