{"id":2480,"date":"2010-04-28T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2010-04-28T14:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/?p=2480"},"modified":"2010-04-28T10:32:16","modified_gmt":"2010-04-28T15:32:16","slug":"solar-owens-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/2010\/04\/solar-owens-lake\/","title":{"rendered":"solar owens lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the comments at DPR-Barcelona<\/a>, David Maisel points us to a pair of news articles on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s latest plan<\/a> for the Owens Lake playa:<\/p>\n

The Department of Water and Power’s board of commissioners [in December] unanimously approved a renewable energy pilot project that would cover 616 acres of lake bed with solar arrays — a possible precursor to a mammoth solar farm that could cover thousands of acres.\u00a0 City utility officials hope that, along with generating power for L.A., the solar panels would reduce the fierce dust storms that rise from the dry lake bed. To comply with federal clean air standards, the DWP must control the dust that has plagued the Owens Valley for decades. Its efforts are part of a $500-million dust mitigation plan…<\/p>\n

To help win over environmentalists, Freeman promised that the DWP would continue its program to flood portions of the lake bed with water to help control dust; the project currently uses enough water to supply 60,000 families. That shallow, ankle-deep flooding has created critical habitat for tens of thousands of migrating waterfowl and shorebirds…<\/p>\n

The pilot solar project would generate an estimated 50 megawatts by 2012, or about 0.5% of L.A.’s energy needs. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has vowed to halt the use of coal-burning power plants by 2020 and — that same year — generate at least 40% of its energy from renewable resources.\u00a0 The DWP estimates that the solar pilot project also could save 2,460 acre-feet of water a year — worth $1.7 million — because the solar arrays could be used to control dust in that portion of Owens Lake instead of flooding.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the full article<\/a> at the LA Times, and a second article<\/a> from Reuters.\u00a0 Interestingly, the interim chief of the DWP describes the array — which promises potential jobs and income for the Valley — as a way to “make peace” with the Valley, as he acknowledges that “eighty years ago, [Los Angeles] stole the [Valley’s] water”.<\/p>\n

Update<\/strong>: It is worth reading both Barry Lehrman’s initial reaction<\/a> to the solar farm proposal last December, and his more recent and more skeptical take, in the comments below<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the comments at DPR-Barcelona, David Maisel points us to a pair of news articles on the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s latest plan for the Owens Lake playa: The Department of Water and Power’s board of commissioners [in December] unanimously approved a renewable energy pilot project that would cover 616 acres of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,366],"tags":[384,367],"class_list":["post-2480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asides","category-mammoth-book-club","tag-owens-lake","tag-reading-the-infrastructural-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2485,"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions\/2485"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/m.ammoth.us\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}