SOLAR PWR PLANT PROTECTS DESERT’S WATER

Tree deal revives Southwest desert solar plan; Developer NextEra's proposal to cut down hundreds of thirsty tamarisk trees may provide a blueprint for resolving similar environmental disputes over solar farms in the desert.
Todd Woody, February 14, 2010 (LA Times)

"…[I]n California City…[a] sprawling desert community east of Bakersfield… NextEra Energy…a subsidiary of utility giant FPL Group…[wants] to build a solar power plant in the area that would consume a large amount of water…[and cut down tamarisk trees], a water-hungry invasive species…[R]emoving them could help recharge the aquifer in this arid region…

"The tree deal is just one way that what threatened to become another intractable fight over the environmental effect of desert solar power plants is turning into a blueprint for the resolution of similar disputes…in the desert Southwest have split the environmental movement and divided local communities. For solar developers and some green groups, the projects are desperately needed in the fight against climate change; others see them as a threat to unique and fragile ecosystems."

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"Water has become a particular flash point. Solar thermal power plants use mirrors to heat liquids to create steam that drives an electricity-generating turbine. The steam must be condensed and the hot water cooled for reuse. The cheapest and most efficient way to do that is wet cooling, which lets the heat evaporate but requires the constant replacement of water…By last fall, NextEra's 250-megawatt Beacon Solar Energy Project was mired in a war over water. The company wanted to tap more than half a billion gallons a year from freshwater wells to cool the solar farm…State policy prohibits the use of drinking water for power plant cooling, and local residents lined up at public hearings to express concern that the solar farm would drain their aquifer…

"With energy commission staffers and NextEra at loggerheads, executives warned last year that they might have to abandon the $1-billion project -- and the hundreds of construction jobs it would create -- because they claimed that Beacon wouldn't be sufficiently profitable unless they could use well water…"

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"But NextEra is now talking with two local municipalities, California City and Rosamond, about buying reclaimed water to cool the power plant. That would allow the company to sidestep a fight over water use while giving the cities a market for their treated wastewater…Energy commission staffers filed documents two weeks ago that would let the Beacon project proceed as long as it used reclaimed water for cooling…

"The compromise offers other environmental benefits as well. Treated wastewater contains salt and nitrates, and by piping it to Beacon rather than returning it to the aquifer, the cities can improve the basin's water quality…[and] NextEra proposed to remove thirsty tamarisk trees to help recharge the aquifer. A native of the Mediterranean, the tamarisk was brought to the American West in the 19th century for use as a windbreak…An acre of tamarisks can consume 1 million gallons of water annually…Regulators welcomed NextEra's proposal to remove tamarisks, which have taken over 1 million acres in the West…The proposal is still in the planning stages, and it's unclear how many trees would be removed and just how much water would be saved…"