DesertBlog

Should we clearcut forests to install solar farms?

Of course not. In addition to all their other values, forests act as carbon sinks. Yet according to a study reported in Nature Reports: Climate Change, deserts may store as much carbon as some temperate forests. The carbon is stored not only in desert plants, but also in biological soil crusts, which are easily damaged by surface disturbance. And at least some solar projects don’t just disturb the surface, they scrape it entirely, over areas totalling thousands of acres.

Hmmm… Maybe we ought to slow down on this rush to build solar farms in the desert, before we find out that big solar is really the next ethanol. At the very least, it seems wise to focus on urban-based renewable energy first, and confine solar farms to heavily disturbed lands near existing transmission lines.

Find more photos of the Mojave Desert at digitaldesert.net.