And destroy all that natural habitat full of biodivesity? Rooftop and parking lot solar for the win.
Where do you think that power should be coming from to stop the cactus, brush and grasses from getting more shade?
It's a desert. There's arguably less biodiversity there than most places. I'm pretty sure there's enough room for there to still be plenty of cactuses and jackrabbits AND a massive amount of solar panels.
Rooftop and parking lot solar isn't the same thing. It's not automatically better. The efficiency of rooftop solar isn't nearly as good as an array that can follow the sun. Given finite resources you could make a case we're better off deploying those panels in a desert and connecting a big fat cable to them vs. a million houses all paying individual installers to install tiny, inefficient arrays piecemeal.
I thought it was well established that desert panels have to be cleaned constantly, and use huge amounts of water; without data im assuming that'll cost more than whatever efficiency gain you get from tracking panels verses non.
And parking lots just make sense -- lots store heat, cars get blistering, and solar gives power and shade...its a win win all day.
A decently balanced article on diversity in the Mojave -- https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-06-27/solar-p...
> "Global climate change will have far reaching impacts and change ecosystems across the world!"
> "Yeah, but solar panels will impact the ecosystem of this local desert so no."
> "You realize the local desert is also part of the global ecosystem will be impacted by climate change right? Right?..."
What specifically do you think solar panels will even hurt and why?
"Under the current policy, there are at least 80 million acres of federal lands open to oil and gas development, which is 100 times the amount of public land available for solar."
I have high hopes that we can provide enough energy by using already disturbed land
Based on what?
This is enough land to power every house in the US with solar if it was all used. It's interesting that even though crops are grown under solar panels all the time, you are worried about empty unused land and not the land already being used for oil and gas or the fact that 60% of all electricity still comes from fossil fuels in the US.
Also dessert is not particularly good for panels. A panel could reach 70-80°C in such environment, when its optimal is at 25°C. Will lose around 25% efficiency.