Hinkley Solar Environmental Analysis

I am writing to you live today from my Nissan Rogue in the Mojave National Preserve. Earlier this week I was working in the field at a utility pole replacement site in the Mojave desert. Essentially I was in the middle of no where. Have you ever heard of Boron? Well, I was working close to there. It may as well have been Mars! 

Anyways, my job as the biologist on site is to ensure environmental mitigation are complied with for electric companies that work on and replace utility poles. The mitigation measures include surveying utility poles for any woodpecker cavities, primarily for the Acorn woodpecker. I also examined the utility poles for presence of bats. However, I saw neither - sometimes you have a negative survey where you don’t see much action in terms of wildlife sightings.

Aside from examining the actual pole itself, I was also responsible for doing sweeps of the area to make sure there was no sign of other sensitive desert wildlife. For this project, the primary species of concern under California Fish and Wildlife regulations is the Mojave desert tortoise (DETO), Mojave ground squirrel (MGSQ) and burrowing owl (BUOW). When I’m in the desert for fieldwork, those species are the most likely candidates for sensitive animals that I’d be mitigating for because that’s what I specialize in! 

While I didn’t see any of these sensitive species on this site, I did see a loggerhead shrike (LOSH), also known as the “butcher bird”. I don’t always see the sensitive species listed. In fact, I most often times only see the Common raven, so I was pretty stoked to see the LOSH! You can’t miss them, they have a black bandit over their eyelid and a distinctive and contrasting gray, white and black coloration. Have you ever seen a mockingbird (MOBI) before? While they look similar, the LOSH is slightly smaller and its coloration is much more defined, whereas the mockingbird is more gray throughout. 

The loggerhead shrike wasn’t the only interesting thing I saw on my survey. Parallel to the road where we were replacing utility poles, was a fenced off area surrounding a solar farm. Hinkley& Lockhart Solar to be exact. I had never seen a completed solar field before and let me tell you, it really felt like I was living in the year 3000 (shoutout Jonas Brothers moment) and I spent a lot of time contemplating what was before me: a massive man made solar farm fenced off with healthy desert habitat on the opposite side. It was jarring to stand there and observe the habitat fragmentation. 

This wasn’t my first time being around a solar farm, though. Earlier in 2021 I had completed a massive desert tortoise survey effort on Edwards Air Force Base(EAFB) but the solar farm wasn’t fully developed like Hinkley Solar. I started to learn more about the solar farm industry first hand and I was the boots on the ground at EAFB, seeing and learning everything about the industry. It was wild to observe the landscape change as solar panels were installed across the base. I was still naïve to the impact of solar but I knew in that moment it didn’t sit right with me. A colleague told me once “The only thing green about solar is the money." I would later learn to agree with them. 

As I’m sitting here inquiring about the impact solar has on our desert wildlife I can’t help but wonder, “How many birds have died from Hinkley&Solar?” I am constantly questioning the status quo of developmental impacts on the environment, including the side effects of solar. Who else is going to have these wondrous inquiries? My curiosity led me to investigate more into the Hinkley&Solar public environmental document report about the impact assessment. 

I did some poking around online for public documents and found their environmental mitigation report with some pretty interesting information on incidental take of various species. Incidental take is when a company, in this case Hinkly&Solar, is allowed up to a certain number of deaths of a species as a result of developmental impact. Here are some examples of what I saw below and what verbiage I thought was interesting and worthy of a brief analysis. 

Incidental Take

• “Likewise, to the extent implementation of the Project as proposed may result in "take" as defined by State law of any species protected under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA) (Fish & G. Code,§ 2050 et seq.), the Project proponent may seek related take authorization as provided by the Fish and Game Code.” (Kimley-Horn pg. 22, 2022).
• Unfortunately, take of any species is permitted on large scale solar projects within a certain limit and # of the population, i.e 20% take of Black necked silts. The only thing that raises a red flag to me about is that the authorization is provided by Fish and Game and not by California Fish and Wildlife(CDFW)…Cal Fish and Game Commission has released an opinion about disagreeing with listing the Joshua tree (Yucca brevifolia) as a threat from climate change. I question their intentions as a state agency and their efforts to protect our environment because of this. (Hopefully they change my mind and list the Jtree in October of this year).

Impact to Desert Wildlife 

• “As part of initial SEGS X construction (in the early 1990s), the entire perimeter of the SEGS X site was enclosed with a 6-foot-tall chain link fence equipped with a desert tortoise exclusionary barrier. Per the SEGS VIII, IX, and X CEC certification, permanent impacts to loss of the then-existing high-quality habitats were mitigated through purchase of 1,680 acres of conservation land for both Mohave ground squirrel (Xerospermophi/us mohavensis) and desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) pursuant to CDFW requirements and approvals.” (Kimley-Horn pg. 25, 2022).
• Short summary - essentially CFDW was responsible for the impacts on the mentioned species and this is a positive that they are including best management practices (BMP’s) in the final report. It’s also interesting to me that conservation easement properties were purchased to mitigate impact to DETO and MGS.

Impact to Migratory Water Fowl & the Lake Hypothesis 

• The Project is located in an area of desert habitat, and there is no large waterbody within 50 kilometers. Thus, the landscape setting at the Project is more similar to PV facilities located away from the Salton Sea than those located closer to the Salton Sea. Kosciuch et al. (2020) reported that PV facilities away from a large water body had very few aquatic habitat bird carcasses detected during the study.
• This part of the report flat out confuses me. Harper “Dry” Lake, adjacent to Hinkley Solar, is a water body. To claim that the “lake hypothesis” does not apply to this solar project denies the existence of Harper Lake. 
• The lake effect hypothesis states that PV solar panels are perceived as water by aquatic habitat birds creating a potential risk of collision with the panels.
• Although there is support that aquatic habitat birds are attracted to PV solar facilities, given the landscape setting at the Project, it is unlikely that aquatic habitat birds would be exposed in large numbers, and no significant direct or indirect impact on aquatic habitat birds is anticipated.
• The redflag to me here is “landscape setting of the project” - just because it’s a desert landscape does not mean we should exclude the potential for Harper Lake to attract migratory waterfowl. I find it interesting that they stated there will be “no significant direct or indirect impact” on aquatic birds…

Conservation Easement

“…1,680 acres and a $150,000 endowment satisfies SEGS IX/X mitigation requirement out of a total of 3,192.34 acres that was transferred to CDFW for mitigation purposes” 

• Ok, but how many acres did Hinkley use to build the solar farm… let’s find out with a quick google search. 1,765 acres. Ok not too bad…

Let’s compile the information we know now. Hinkly&Solar Final Environmental mitigation report anticipates that there is no incidental take of avian species. We know this because the “lake hypothesis” effect was not applicable to this study site. However, based on geographical references we can see that Harper Lake is adjacent to the solar farm. The environmental mitigation report suggests that there were little to no avian mortalities because the lake hypothesis was not applicable to this study. Yet, there is a water body within the solar farms vicinity. Did the LOSH use Harper Lake as a water source? Was there other wildlife that flocked to this watering hole? 

While the environmental report document states that no migratory water fowl will be impacted by the “lake effect” hypothesis, do we still question the impact? Absolutely.

I’m sure you can imagine what I did next. I investigated into current research about the Lake Hypothesis affect. The researchers collected data by conducting avian point count surveys at several desert solar sites in California to determine incidental take of migratory bird species. They found that if the solar farms were built far enough away from a water body, then migratory birds would avoid these solar site. Thus the “lake effect” hypothesis would not be an issue. 

To investigate further about avian mortalities, I talked to a colleague, Michaela Grubb, who is also a biologist and avid botanist. Michaela was out near Harper Lake sometime this past June with another colleague, Randy Thomas, doing desert tortoise surveys. However, they saw much more than just tortoises. Michaela had told me she saw several migratory waterfowl species near Harper Lake, such as the spotted sand piper, great egrets, and a few duck species. She also told me that the Hinkley&Solar fence line backs up directly to Harper Lake. 

If Hinkly&Solar is directly next to a water body, then wouldn’t that prove the “lake hypothesis” theory right? The presence of migratory water fowl at Harper Lake indicates that birds are present near this solar farm. So wouldn’t that mean that there is an environmental impact for avian species passing through?

While I certainly do not know all the answers, I do have more questions about the impacts of solar farm development, and the lake hypothesis effect is one I will have to learn more about. In the meantime, remain curious and question everything… Stay tuned for updates on the topic!