In the early 1900s, the city of Los Angeles drained Owens Lake to meet its water needs. At present, the lakebed - located close to Death Valley National Park, one of the hottest and driest parts of the country - must be watered down to contain powerful dust storms. Annual water costs for the L.A. Department of Water and Power run into the millions.
Solar panels can provide a solution, DWP hopes, both containing dust and providing clean electricity. A pilot project has been approved by DWP's board of commissioners, and environmental groups in eastern California have given it their imprimatur.
Now the project just needs approval from the State Lands Commission. The pilot development would occupy 616 acres of the lake and generate 50 megawatts of electricity, about one-half of one percent of L.A.'s needs. But DWP officials envision a solar power installation that would occupy thousands of acres, the L.A. Times reports.
Ideally, future development would "balance … habitat restoration and solar generation" on the lake bed, lands commission executive director Paul Thayer said to the Times.
