“Our town is dying:“ Exploring utility-scale and rooftop solar energy injustices in Southeastern California

Abstract

Desert ecosystems have experienced an intensive and increasingly rapid integration of solar energy projects into their landscapes. The social and ecological impact of solar energy is particularly pronounced in California, given aggressive state targets to decarbonize its electricity grid. Between 2010 and 2024, more than 230 utility-scale solar projects have been sited in the Mojave and Colorado deserts, which excludes the deployment of rooftop solar systems on residences. This article explores lived experiences of people who live among intensive solar development around the community of Blythe, California. While solar energy is regarded as a “clean,” socially just and democratic technology, the practical and intensive development of solar energy has sobering and deleterious results on the community and natural environment there. This article demonstrates how solar energy development entrenches inequality, perpetuates racism and continues a trajectory of ecological degradation. It includes material and ecological harm, but also issues of aggravated mental health, anxiety, stress and misunderstanding, including fear of illness. To advance these lines of argument, this article relies on original data from participant observation and site visits, 29 semi-structured interviews (with 38 research respondents) and four focus groups. Based on these data, we find that the current imperative driving solar expansion raises profound and timely concerns, which are intensified by global, federal and, most immediately, state calls to accelerate and streamline solar production in California Deserts and beyond. The levels of extractive production, consumption and consequently material and energy use remain a structural problem, threatening the positive sociological potential of solar energy development.