The Department of Water and Power wants to transform the area into one of the largest producers of solar energy in America.
Reporting from Lone Pine - First it was silver ore that streamed to Los Angeles from the rim of the Owens Valley, then the water from the valley floor.Now, L.A. has come back for the sunshine.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the agency responsible for turning Owens Lake into a dusty salt flat and snatching up nearly every acre from Lone Pine to Bishop, has its sights on transforming the Owens Valley into one of largest sources of solar power in America.
Interim DWP Chief S. David Freeman says the valley on the dry side of the Sierra Nevada is blessed with the "best sun in the country." He envisions a gigantic solar array that could cover 80 square miles of dry lake bed and nearby flatlands, a sea of photovoltaic cells roughly the size of Cleveland that would generate up to 10% of all the power produced in California while simultaneously calming the region's fierce dust storms.
Owens Valley residents crowded into a Methodist church recently to hear Freeman's pitch. Though intrigued by the idea of turning the scarred earth at Owens Lake into a source of clean energy and local jobs, many still chafed at L.A.'s near feudal reign over the valley.
"Given our history with them, there's skepticism," said Mark Bagley of the Owens Valley Committee and Sierra Club, which took successful legal action to force the DWP to restore the Lower Owens River. "But it's promising if it's done right, the right way."
The fast-moving project has become essential to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's promise to end the city's use of coal-fired power by 2020, a course he vowed would be "irreversible" by the time he leaves office in three years.
Villaraigosa also wants to use the lucrative contracts for the solar array as leverage to bring renewable-energy companies and new manufacturing jobs to Los Angeles.
Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-owens-solar2-2010feb02,0,2677831.story
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