The Mojave Project: Transforming the desert: Utility-scale solar in California’s Mojave
A transformation is underway across the Desert West to meet current and future electricity needs, especially in California and Nevada’s biodiverse deserts, where vast, open areas are being converted into industrial energy zones that previously hosted desert tortoises, kit foxes, and old-growth Joshua trees. View-obstructing transmission lines will crisscross the land, and data centers may follow. This change, driven by a collision of sunlight, technology, and ecology, will be significant and permanent, and is reshaping the desert as we know it.