Companies squeezing power from sun, deserts in Southern California

[XemaSab]

Vincent Signorotti's power plant sits on the edge of the Salton Sea, surrounded by irrigated cropland in the middle of a scorched desert. Beyond the lake, beyond the patch of green fields, the desert seems empty. But it holds all the energy Signorotti's plant will ever need. Energy that could play a key role in California's fight against global warming.

The plant runs on hot water, pumped from deep underground and flashed into steam to turn turbines. With 10 generators near the lakeshore, the facility produces enough electricity for 255,000 homes, and the company that owns it wants to expand. Other companies are drilling nearby, hoping to build their own geothermal plants.

"We're very lucky," said Signorotti, a vice president with CalEnergy Operating Corp., as he considered all the energy beneath his feet. "This is really the crown jewel of undeveloped renewable resources."

A renewable-energy boom is under way in the Southern California desert. The region's open, empty spaces have room for big projects - such as vast solar energy farms - that can generate energy on a grand scale while producing few, if any, greenhouse gasses. Dozens of new solar and geothermal generating stations have been proposed, from Lancaster to the Arizona and Mexico borders. They won't be cheap to build, possibly raising the costs Californians pay for power. But with the state's utilities scrambling to find more renewable energy, the projects are moving forward.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/01/MN4PTKKDH.DTL&tsp=1

[silverweb]

1. Excellent.

Not a moment too soon. More sun, less fossil fuels!

[losthills]

2. I believe that Solar and Wind power are the way to go.

They are really the only pathways to a sane energy future...

But we have to be careful how we develope and utilize renewable sources. If we're going to follow the same models that have not worked for us in the past with other energy sources, then renewables are not going to do us any good. If the utility companies expect environmentalists to roll over and accept the development and destruction of our last wildlands for wind and solar mega-plants, they are making a mistake.

When I hear these scenarios about building solar plants out in the desert covering thousands of acres, with thousands of miles of new power lines criss-crossing the wilderness I have to say,"No. I'm going to take a stand against that."

That is not the right way to develope renewable resources, in my opinion. It's just another way for the same energy cartels to maintain their death-grip on the citizens and the landscape of this country...