HOW MUCH SUN DOES A SMALL CITY NEED?

Fact Check: How Much Solar to Power San Diego?
Randy Dotinga, May 18, 2011 (Voice of San Diego)

"…Bob Livingston is a well-known former congressman who was elected to serve as House speaker but resigned in 1998 when a sex scandal of his own erupted during the Clinton impeachment. He's now a Washington, D.C. lobbyist and finance chairman of Louisiana's Republican Party…[He recently] criticized subsidies of solar and wind energy…[said] natural gas, oil, and coal will [power the nation for decades and]…said solar panels would need to cover the Mojave Desert to serve the power needs of the city of San Diego…

"However, if you did manage to cover the Mojave Desert with solar panels, you could create a lot more energy than is needed for San Diego…Scott Anders, director of the Energy Policy Initiatives Center at University of San Diego School of Law…[said the Mojave Desert’s 25,000 square miles is]…tremendously more space…than is needed to meet the power demands of SDG&E…[It] could be served by solar panels [which generate electricity with the sun’s light] in just 50 square miles, about one percent of San Diego County's total area…"

There's way more sun than is needed. (click to enlarge)

"…[The] Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System… in the Mojave…[which is a solar power plant that uses the sun’s heat to generate electricity] is expected to sit on 3,600 acres and produce enough energy to power 140,000 homes annually…If the plant expanded to cover the entire desert (difficult, obviously, since the desert has mountains and other development already there), it could conceivably produce enough energy to power 622 million homes annually…a whole lot more than exist in San Diego…

"To sum up: If it was somehow possible to turn the 25,000 square miles of Mojave Desert into a giant solar energy farm, it could produce much more energy — much more — than is needed to serve the power needs of the SDG&E service area, let alone the city of San Diego…Livingston's claim is false…[Livingston didn't immediately return messages left with his lobbying firm, the Republican Party of Louisiana and an organization on whose board he sits]…"