We Support Rooftop Solar
August 10, 2022 - Basin and Range Watch has for the past 13 years actively supported better rooftop policies and alternatives in order to fight climate change, while conserving our precious deserts. Every comment letter we send to public lands managing agencies during the environmental review process for solar and wind applications includes a proposed Distributed Generation (DG) alternative to ripping up Mojave Desert Ecosystems and biodiversity. Here are some of the older links on the BRW website on Distributed Generation:
We participated in public protests in 2016 at the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) in Las Vegas, over the proposal by Investor Owned Uilities (NV Energy) to gut popular net-energy metering policies that incentivize massive rooftop solar installation.
See our page on Rooftop Solar Policy obstacles in Nevada and California: http://basinandrangewatch.org/Net-Metering-Nevada.html
^Basin and Range Watch helped to hold the signs at this protest agsinst the proposed Soda Mountain Solar Project in California, and the application which was later withdrawn. We pushed for rooftop solar and DG!
We commented on the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) in 2015 and 2016, asking for an alternative that analyzed a distributed renewable energy generation and storage in the built environment--the the future of renewable energy technology that can meet our renewable energy quota without sacrificing more desert ecosystems.
http://basinandrangewatch.org/DRECP-DER-is-Better.html
In 2015 Basin & Range Watch and Solar Done Right submitted a detailed comment letter to the California Energy Commission on the better DG alternative to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. Many organizations and individuals signed onto this letter, inlcuding the Desert Tortoise Council, Center for Biological Diversity, WildEarth Guardians, Desert Protective Council, California Wilderness Coalition, Western lands Project, Western Watersheds Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, California Native Plant Society, the Amargosa Conservancy, Mojave national Preserve Conservancy, and others. Instead of massive bulldozing of desert ecosystems and fragmentation of rural communities, we proposed an alternative that utilizes the California Energy Efficiency Strategic Plan, which is already state law. Enough rooftop and parking lot sites exist to more than fulfill the California electricity need, as well as pushing for more energy efficiency to save energy. An extensive parking lot solar canopy analysis was included, by Bill Powers Engineering.
http://basinandrangewatch.org/DRECP-CEESP-Alternative.html
Basin and Range Watch has been a part of the think tank Solar Done Right for the past 10 years, helping to develop policy and educational materials on rooftop solar, parking lot canopy solar, microgrids, energy efficiency and energy conservation. Recently BRW has actively participated in the California net energy metering better policy push, against utilities. We are in regular contact with the California rooftop solar coalition.
Distributed generation is simply the better option for renewable energy build-out, not on high-value ecosystems that sequester carbon on limited public lands.
