Planned Solar Thermal Power Plant Projects Besieged by Environmentalists and Native AmericansSolar thermal power plants use parabolic mirrors to focus incredible amounts of solar energy on narrow tubes of liquid. The liquid becomes superheated and is used to boil water, creating steam that turns generator turbines and produces electricity. This is in contrast to solar photovoltaic power plants (and solar "panels" as you know them), which uses special materials to generate electricity directly from sunlight.
The New York Times article highlights a growing trend of environmentalist opposition to solar power, with Native American opposition thrown in for good measure. That raises an important question: Where the hell are we supposed to get our electrical power from?
Ten years ago, market dynamics were such, and the composition of the government was such, that the nascent solar thermal power plant industry had been stagnated for decades, with no new construction and only limited existing plants. Coal and especially natural gas were more profitable at the time, and the technologies for those kinds of power plants were mature and cost effective.
That changed over the decade, and suddenly the industry revived. Huge new solar power plants were going to be built, lending critical new generating capacity to California and the Western Power Grid generally. Vast tracts of open desert land were ripe for development, and it is already technologically plausible that we could achieve
all of our power needs in the west through the construction solar power plant stations. I don't even mean all
new needs; I mean we could shut down
every other power generating plant and machine in the West and run only on solar power. It would be expensive, but the technology to do it already exists, an would become cheaper with maturation and economies of scale. The land and resources are also available. Water would be the limiting factor, and we could fix that with minor reductions to the agricultural water supply, or new waterworks projects.
Solar power is as green as energy production can get. The makeup of a solar power plant is stuff like glass and metal. There is no fossil fuel required except that to carry out the mining and refining operations to build the plant. Greenhouse gas emissions would be limited to the water steam that escapes the plant, and that could be recaptured if desired.
Also, the amount of empty land there is hard to appreciate unless you have seen it in person. Can you spot the solar power plants in
this picture? The complaints about threats to wildlife are almost
completely bogus. The most sensitive areas can be avoided for development. Solar power stations can be interspersed with areas of empty land. There's plenty of it.
This is a clear case of calcification in the environmentalist lobby; these people know nothing else than to oppose construction projects. Given the alternatives of more fossil fuel power plants, and their beloved nuclear fission power plants, I am aghast that environmentalists are suing to prevent these solar plants from being built. And, so far, they're winning. That, I think, is an artifact of environmentalist excess in the State of California.
The Native American opposition is one of opportunism. Money and land is at stake, and the tribes want their cut. They could be afforded their fair share. They could even be invited into the development process. In any case, this opposition is less significant than the environmentalist opposition.
I grew up in the Mojave Desert and have seen one of these power plants from the inside. This, along with nuclear fission power and to a lesser extent hydroelectric power, is the primary baseload answer to our power generation needs in the aftermath of the coal era. These plants are more efficient in both land and cost than solar photovoltaic plants, and they can be any size. They can be built to produce electricity with the cycle of the sun, thus paralleling the peak afternoon electrical demand which is a big deal in California. Or they can be built to produce electricity around the clock, through the use of heat reservoirs that introduce inefficiencies but are reliable enough to be practical.
I am aghast that environmentalists are not the number one supporters of these projects. As an environmentalist myself, I condemn, reject, and denounce their narrow-mindedness.
