Thanks for weighing the various factors, and the uncertainty associated with each, and leading readers through these difficult choices. Will corporate demand for power to supply data centers add pressure to the decision as this proposed project moves slowly forward? Power grid issues? Bohan’s directness is welcome. What’s with VC Renewables resistance to making its position clear to the public? And those majestic sheep, scraping out their living in this rocky landscape…
Hey Christine, thank you for reading! And posing so many good questions....hard to say how data centers might impact this particular project, but big picture, yes, I fear that AI-driven power demand will increase land use stresses generally, making it difficult to build all the renewables we need, and pushing more projects into harmful places. A very good reason to take a skeptical eye to data centers, IMO.
With regards to VC Renewables, my best guess is they're trying to avoid public scrutiny because they know there's so much public opposition to this project. Never a good PR strategy. They would have been better off talking with me instead of forcing me to point out how evasive they are.
What will happen to the sheep when the temperature rises another 1C? Will there be any grasses surviving the extra heat and lack of moisture in the soil? Sure the solar panels will affect the ecosystem, but doing nothing could be worse.
Thanks for the thoughtful discussion Sammy. I recently saw an idea about putting solar panels over freeways like I-15. If this idea has any merit I would appreciate you covering it in the future (pun intended 😀).
Appreciate your reading! I don't know anything about solar panels over freeways, but it sounds cool in theory...if I learn more, and it's feasible, I'll try to write something. Feel free to send me an email if you learn anything interesting!
Thanks for this, Sammy. I am a big fan and appreciate your research, perspective and writing. I'll continue to pass on your writing and try to get more subscribers.
I will say again that the solar panels should be much closer to point of use. While perhaps the Soda Mountain generated electricity might power the future Brightline Wesr, energy independence for all of us is far more critical.
Hey David, thank you for reading and commenting! I'm certainly with you on installing as many solar panels as close to point of use as possible, which is why I've been hammering Newsom and the Public Utilities Commission for years on net metering, community solar, etc. Really shameful how California has throttled small-scale solar. I'm hopeful this will change under the next governor.
Why must the whole project be built at once? Why not design it so it can be built out in stages, giving the sheep a chance to adapt to the changing environment?
Hey Chuck, that's an interesting question! Will admit that I don't know the answer for sure. Not sure what the sheep biologists would have to say about the efficacy, and also wonder what it would mean for the developer's financing. Haven't seen it considered.
Clarify Soda Mtn "not making the cut" for the 10m acre PV master plan with it doesn't violate the "letter" of the plan. Can both be true? Explain why the companies don't build first on those 10M acres. All those years of time and money spent developing the plan; what was the point if it's not adhered to?
Hey Chris, good question, thank you for asking! Will try to keep this concise...so the master plan was called the DRECP (Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan), and it designated about 400,000 acres of "Development Focus Areas," or DFAs, where renewable energy would be streamlined. About 6.5 million acres were set aside for conservation, and another 3.6 million for recreation — ie. no renewable energy allowed. But then in addition to the 400,000 acres of DFA, there were other areas were renewable energy wasn't streamlined, but wasn't prohibited, either. Soda Mountain Solar is in one of those areas.
I'm sympathetic to the question, "What's the point of the DRECP if we're not building out the DFAs first?" But technically the DRECP does also allow a project in this place. Hope that makes sense.
Late to the post but I just wanted to say this is the type of climate reporting I've always wanted. In the weeds, no endless equivocation but a choice with a recommendation without false certainty. Hope you get the support to keep going.
The legit carrying cap[acity of this planet is likely 3-4 billion. Vasectomy 50 years ago,--there are plenty of kids who can use an extra uncle We likely need a couple centuries of reduced humanity to restore the aquifirs/
This is what overpopulation looks like. Sure, we've been able to barely keep up with population growth by growing more food, even though many still starve to death every year, but we all need energy, and renewable energy is much better than fossil fuels, so hard decisions will have to be made to accommodate solar and wind projects.
If Americans weren't so wasteful, maybe we could leave more sensitive areas free of energy projects like this, but "Roughly two-thirds (about 67–68%) of all energy generated in the United States is wasted through inefficiencies, according to analyses of U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data." That's a lot of wasted energy folks. That there is your problem. Too many people using way more energy than they need.
Paul, you know I admire your work on EVs, but I want to bring children into the world and raise them and watch them thrive. I expect it will be one of the great joys of my life, and I think everyone who wants to experience it should have the opportunity.
I want people like you to reproduce. However, I've been a population activist for over 50 years, and I can assure you there are many people having children who have no business doing so.
There are over 5 million unintended pregnancies in the US every year. About one million are terminated. Of the 4 million carried to term, a high percentage are born to parents who had no intention of having children, but because of restrictive abortion laws, ignorance, or financial reasons, they ended up with a child. According to a Drexel study, children born as a result of an unintended pregnancy have lots of behavior problems and have difficult lives as a result. It's not their fault they were born, but very few can overcome the damage from an uninterested parent, or worse, an abusive one. Many of the criminals, gang members, street takeover participants, and store marauders are children born as a result of an unintended pregnancy.
So what's the solution? I looked into which country has the lowest abortion rate and it's the Netherlands. Digging deeper, I found that they achieved this remarkable feat by mandating sex ed in middle school, providing free/low cost contraception, and mostly keeping religion out of the discussion. When I visited that country in 2013, I read in the local paper that two prisons were closing because of a lack of need. The US would do well to replicate successful countries like the Netherlands.
I endowed vasectomy funds with Planned Parenthood offices in Eugene, OR and Los Angeles. I also help fund World Vasectomy Day every year. On a single day in the fall, several hundred doctors in over 30 countries perform several thousand free vasectomies on men who otherwise couldn't afford it.
Thanks for weighing the various factors, and the uncertainty associated with each, and leading readers through these difficult choices. Will corporate demand for power to supply data centers add pressure to the decision as this proposed project moves slowly forward? Power grid issues? Bohan’s directness is welcome. What’s with VC Renewables resistance to making its position clear to the public? And those majestic sheep, scraping out their living in this rocky landscape…
Hey Christine, thank you for reading! And posing so many good questions....hard to say how data centers might impact this particular project, but big picture, yes, I fear that AI-driven power demand will increase land use stresses generally, making it difficult to build all the renewables we need, and pushing more projects into harmful places. A very good reason to take a skeptical eye to data centers, IMO.
With regards to VC Renewables, my best guess is they're trying to avoid public scrutiny because they know there's so much public opposition to this project. Never a good PR strategy. They would have been better off talking with me instead of forcing me to point out how evasive they are.
What will happen to the sheep when the temperature rises another 1C? Will there be any grasses surviving the extra heat and lack of moisture in the soil? Sure the solar panels will affect the ecosystem, but doing nothing could be worse.
Climate change is definitely harmful to bighorn sheep and all other wildlife, which is part of my thinking here.
Great writing.
Thank you!
Thanks for the thoughtful discussion Sammy. I recently saw an idea about putting solar panels over freeways like I-15. If this idea has any merit I would appreciate you covering it in the future (pun intended 😀).
Appreciate your reading! I don't know anything about solar panels over freeways, but it sounds cool in theory...if I learn more, and it's feasible, I'll try to write something. Feel free to send me an email if you learn anything interesting!
Thanks for this, Sammy. I am a big fan and appreciate your research, perspective and writing. I'll continue to pass on your writing and try to get more subscribers.
Thank you, Paula — that means a lot!
I will say again that the solar panels should be much closer to point of use. While perhaps the Soda Mountain generated electricity might power the future Brightline Wesr, energy independence for all of us is far more critical.
Hey David, thank you for reading and commenting! I'm certainly with you on installing as many solar panels as close to point of use as possible, which is why I've been hammering Newsom and the Public Utilities Commission for years on net metering, community solar, etc. Really shameful how California has throttled small-scale solar. I'm hopeful this will change under the next governor.
I've also tried hard to be clear-eyed about the practical realities of replacing the entire fossil fueled energy system — all the coal plants, gas plants, refineries, cars and trucks, home heating, etc. — in the next 15-20 years. All the best research I've seen shows there's no way to do it without ridiculous amounts of large-scale solar. Got into that in great detail here: https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2023-06-29/can-rooftop-solar-alone-solve-climate-change-heres-the-answer-boiling-point
Why must the whole project be built at once? Why not design it so it can be built out in stages, giving the sheep a chance to adapt to the changing environment?
Hey Chuck, that's an interesting question! Will admit that I don't know the answer for sure. Not sure what the sheep biologists would have to say about the efficacy, and also wonder what it would mean for the developer's financing. Haven't seen it considered.
Clarify Soda Mtn "not making the cut" for the 10m acre PV master plan with it doesn't violate the "letter" of the plan. Can both be true? Explain why the companies don't build first on those 10M acres. All those years of time and money spent developing the plan; what was the point if it's not adhered to?
Hey Chris, good question, thank you for asking! Will try to keep this concise...so the master plan was called the DRECP (Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan), and it designated about 400,000 acres of "Development Focus Areas," or DFAs, where renewable energy would be streamlined. About 6.5 million acres were set aside for conservation, and another 3.6 million for recreation — ie. no renewable energy allowed. But then in addition to the 400,000 acres of DFA, there were other areas were renewable energy wasn't streamlined, but wasn't prohibited, either. Soda Mountain Solar is in one of those areas.
I'm sympathetic to the question, "What's the point of the DRECP if we're not building out the DFAs first?" But technically the DRECP does also allow a project in this place. Hope that makes sense.
Late to the post but I just wanted to say this is the type of climate reporting I've always wanted. In the weeds, no endless equivocation but a choice with a recommendation without false certainty. Hope you get the support to keep going.
We need to use the oil insanity in the Gulf to spur not only EVs, seriously better transit, but also cleaning up the petro fertiliser addiction.
The legit carrying cap[acity of this planet is likely 3-4 billion. Vasectomy 50 years ago,--there are plenty of kids who can use an extra uncle We likely need a couple centuries of reduced humanity to restore the aquifirs/
This is what overpopulation looks like. Sure, we've been able to barely keep up with population growth by growing more food, even though many still starve to death every year, but we all need energy, and renewable energy is much better than fossil fuels, so hard decisions will have to be made to accommodate solar and wind projects.
If Americans weren't so wasteful, maybe we could leave more sensitive areas free of energy projects like this, but "Roughly two-thirds (about 67–68%) of all energy generated in the United States is wasted through inefficiencies, according to analyses of U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data." That's a lot of wasted energy folks. That there is your problem. Too many people using way more energy than they need.
Paul, you know I admire your work on EVs, but I want to bring children into the world and raise them and watch them thrive. I expect it will be one of the great joys of my life, and I think everyone who wants to experience it should have the opportunity.
I want people like you to reproduce. However, I've been a population activist for over 50 years, and I can assure you there are many people having children who have no business doing so.
There are over 5 million unintended pregnancies in the US every year. About one million are terminated. Of the 4 million carried to term, a high percentage are born to parents who had no intention of having children, but because of restrictive abortion laws, ignorance, or financial reasons, they ended up with a child. According to a Drexel study, children born as a result of an unintended pregnancy have lots of behavior problems and have difficult lives as a result. It's not their fault they were born, but very few can overcome the damage from an uninterested parent, or worse, an abusive one. Many of the criminals, gang members, street takeover participants, and store marauders are children born as a result of an unintended pregnancy.
So what's the solution? I looked into which country has the lowest abortion rate and it's the Netherlands. Digging deeper, I found that they achieved this remarkable feat by mandating sex ed in middle school, providing free/low cost contraception, and mostly keeping religion out of the discussion. When I visited that country in 2013, I read in the local paper that two prisons were closing because of a lack of need. The US would do well to replicate successful countries like the Netherlands.
I endowed vasectomy funds with Planned Parenthood offices in Eugene, OR and Los Angeles. I also help fund World Vasectomy Day every year. On a single day in the fall, several hundred doctors in over 30 countries perform several thousand free vasectomies on men who otherwise couldn't afford it.