Photovoltaic

"I don't see anything, do you?" came the question from the art director. "No, let's try going around that irrigation canal," I said. Directions on the back of an envelope and dirt roads in the middle of the desert aside, it took us three passes to see 350,000 solar panels from the front seat of our rental car. We couldn't believe how low profile the solar farm was. Windmills aren't difficult to spot, we'd done that earlier this spring. They move, they stand 300 feet tall and of course the blades make a whooshing sound as they cut through the air. We could barely see the solar farm from the interstate which was at a higher elevation. When we arrived it was quiet, clean, and simple. It was on this assignment for NRG Energy in the Mohave Desert when we realized how utterly insane it is that we produce the bulk of our energy from unclean fossil fuels. The only mechanicals that stood more than 6' high were the conversion houses. Looking like something from Area 51 they're small units with large numbers painted on the side where power is converted from DC to AC and transmitted to the grid. 27 MW of power are produced on this impressive farm and after transmission roughly 21 is left, even on a somewhat cloudy day. It took for me to get up above it in the Ultra Boom we'd rented to see its expanse. With photo voltaic there are no moving parts, dust that might block the sun's rays is cleaned off of them by occasional rains, they're low profile, they don't make any noise or put off any emissions and they're connected with simple cords. Especially in light of what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico, it's odd that these farms aren't ubiquitous.