Solar Projects Turn Into Disaster as Groundwater Dries Up, Leaving Residents Furious: 'Dead Without Water'

westernjournal.com ^ | 6/29/2023 | Michael Austin

[rktman]

Located just about halfway between Los Angeles and Phoenix, Desert Center, California, was once bustling with business.

In the ’20s, the local Desert Center Cafe was open 24-7 with customers filtering in and out as they made their way back and forth between the two iconic cities. According to The Desert Sun in Palm Springs, the cafe’s motto was “We lost our keys, we can’t close!”

Today, the Desert Center Cafe — along with the rest of the buildings on the dingy Desert Center main street — is abandoned and dilapidated.

Other than the small ghost town at its center, what’s left of Desert Center is the handful of small communities surrounding it.

Even absent the historic downtown, area locals had much to be thankful for. The landscape, for example, is beautiful. You can stare out at the endless desert, examine the lush palo verde and aged ironwood trees or even spot local treasures, such as the rare species of desert tortoises and sacred indigenous sites.

Thanks to the construction of massive solar farms, all of the above are under threat, along with one more resource locals likely treasure above almost all else: the water supply.

No More Water John Beach owns a bit of land in the middle of the desolate Desert Center. At first, it’s unlikely Beach thought the area’s local solar project — a product of the Obama administration’s push to scale solar energy development on public lands — would have much of an effect on his property.

Beach’s land doesn’t even have a home on it, only two palm trees, both of which he has been watering for 15 years.

[RetiredTexasVet]

especially to clean off dust, which, if left untouched, could cause various health problems for those nearby

You got to be kidding me. The article makes little sense and is poorly written .... will not get back the couple minutes wasted by reading it.

[Wonder Warthog]

"Of course, you can’t simply reject heat to the desert air to cool the water — you need a refrigeration system."

Sure you can. The problem arises because the panels become much hotter than the desert air because they are very dark and very efficient at absorbing photons. Blowing existing temperature desert air across the backs of the panels will at least reduce them to the current air temperature.

And you can make quite a nice refrigeration system with compressed air...it is called a "vortex tube" which takes ambient temperature air and literally blows hot air from one end and cold air from the other. Not as efficient as a compressor, but the ultimate in device simplicity.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I lived in Rock Springs, Wyoming for a little while many years ago. We had all the high desert dust AND never-ending winds that blew it through every crack in the house. Every evening, everything in the house was covered in dust.