Mojave Desert

The Mojave Desert (pronounced "mohárvee") is a barren stretch of land running south of the Sierra Nevada and north of the San Bernardino and San Gabriel mountains, covering an area of 15,000sq.mi/38,850sq.km, its eastern boundary being formed by the states of Nevada and Arizona. Although the main parts of the desert are very hot and dry, attempts at agricultural cultivation in the extreme west, Antelope Valley (Los Angeles County), have been crowned with success.

Originally, the Chemehuevi and Mojave Indians lived here.

Solar technology

As the sun pours down on many days of the year (over 3,000 hours), the average air-humidity is very low (thus protecting the steel in the modern industrial plant from rust) and vast land-areas are for the most part unused, the Mojave Desert offers ideal conditions for the production of regenerative energy. In this region of America most energy is consumed around midday, for the Californians switch on their air-conditioning punctually at twelve o'clock. In all, there are seven solar power stations at three sites, the main one being that of Dagget on Highway No. 1; the eighth solar power station is nearing completion.

Solar fields

In Dagget they are experimenting with different systems: the economically unprofitable solar-tower power station and the "solar-dish", standing on a single foot and made up of several individual mirrors. The latest technology is based on solar fields: with so-called "low-tech", the sun's energy is trapped by means of parabolic mirror channels, up to 330ft/100m long and over 16ft/5m wide. Using conventional power-station techniques, steam and resultant energy is produced by means of oil which is heated in the channels.