Solar Power & Going On A BioBlitz

Are there sunny days ahead for solar energy?

This is The Environment Report. I’m Lester Graham.

President Obama’s visit to Nellis Air Force Base near Las Vegas has more to do with what’s on the ground than fighter jets in the air. Nellis is home to the nation’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant. The solar power system generates enough electricity to power the equivelent of more than 13-thousand homes.

The Air Force’s partner in financing, building and operating the solar plant is MMA Renewable Ventures. Matt Cheney is CEO.

Solar only generates a tiny fraction of energy in the U.S., but Cheney says there are lots of advantages… starting with--- there’s no need for foreign or domestic fossil fuels…

“It gets its energy from the sun. And, by the way, the sun is pretty predictable and effectively the energy we get from it is free.”

That’s not to say solar energy is free. The array at Nellis Air Force Base cost 100-million dollars to build. It provides about 25-percent of the power at Nellis, and the Air Force saves about a million dollars a year. Now… 100-million dollars to build… saving a million dollars a year. It’s going to take a while to break even. But as the demand for more solar goes up, the technology gets cheaper to manufacture. So, in just a few years you might be able to get solar energy for about the same price as from coal-burning power plants.

Renewable Venture’s Matt Cheney says he’s glad President Obama is seeing this technology in-person.

“He’s going to be impressed that you can have an on-site system, generate power from the sun where there’s a lot of it, providing essential power to support our national defense effort.”

(((STING)))

This is The Environment Report.

The National Park Service has a slightly embarrassing problem.

It manages some of the nation's most environmentally valuable land - but a lot of the time… it really doesn’t know all of the animals that live there… or the plants that grow there.

So… the park service is trying something called a bio-blitz. It’s a kind of whirlwind count of all the species in a park.

The Park Service has been teaming up with National Geographic on bio-blitzes..

We sent Shawn Allee out to the latest one.

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The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is spread along Lake Michigan southern shoreline.

During this bioblitz, scientists and volunteers fan out in teams to search sand dunes, woods, and grassland.

9-year old Zachary Benes has been scooting through the rain to pick mushrooms and bring them to mycologist Patrick Leacock.


Benes: Is it poisonous?
Leacock: Nope. A real mushroom.
Tang: Yeah.

Allee: You found another one, too? Where'd you find it?

Benes: Over there by the wood.


Leacock: This is collybia sub-sulphurea. Do you know what sulpher means?

Benes: No.

Leacock: It's kind of a yellow-orange color. This might be a new record for the dunes. Is it just the one?

Benes: Yeah.

Leacock: It's in good shape.


The point of a BioBlitz is to document biodiversity in one place, so National Geographic and The National Park Service want people to count all the species in this park.

They mean everything - not just the stuff that's a cinch to find or animals that're kinda cute.

So, people are out looking for elusive bugs, bats and even fungi.

Dr. Leacock's glad to have the help.

Leacock: The more people you have searching, that helps a lot. Different people will see different things. So we've 14,15 things right in my box. We have two that might be new records for the dunes.


The BioBlitz at The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore lasts another 20 hours.

A few days later, Dr. Leacock writes me.

He confirms that a volunteer collected one fungi specimen no one had ever seen in the Dunes park.

#END#


OUTRO: Groups around the country sponsor bioblitzes at state and local parks too… but the next National Geographic and Park Service bio blitz is next year in Florida at Biscayne Bay near Miami.