The Western Mojave's Solar Arrays

You're driving through one of the densest concentrations of utility-scale solar power generation in the United States. The western Mojave catches more than six kilowatt-hours of sunlight per square meter on an average day, the land is cheap and nearly flat, and big transmission lines already cross the entire Valley on their way to Los Angeles. That combination of opportunities created what you see all around you, private firms doing their most efficient work to harness the sun's energetic rays.

Several giants sit in this baked corridor. About fourteen miles north, near the hamlet of Cantil, is the Beacon Solar Project: roughly 250 megawatts and more than 900,000 panels on sun-tracking mounts, owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Southwest, near Rosamond, lies Solar Star, which at 579 megawatts and 1.7 million panels was the largest solar farm on Earth when it switched on in June 2015. To your east, toward Boron and Edwards Air Force Base, sprawl the enormous Edwards Sanborn and Aratina arrays.

Striking a delicate, and times difficult, balance of a cleaner energy source that must be built upon a sensitive desert environment will hopefully result in best practices for the decades to come. Emotions run high on both sides of the mojave desert energy production field...