Removable and Place-Based Economies: Alternative Futures for America’s Deserts - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 301

There is thus a strong argument to be made that centralized generation and grid distribution
are extreme energy- wasting systems. The grid entirely misses the primary advantage of
“alternative” generation: dispersed on-site location. Centralized control and maintenance
is at most a weak counterargument.
The main reason that the grid is still the focus of discussion is that it is owned by large
companies protecting their interests. On-site generation would free citizens from paying
monthly bills for energy. Tying alternative generation to the grid keeps utility companies
in control. In addition, long-distance shunting from cheap-generation areas to expensive-
use areas allows speculative trading in electricity as a commodity—gaming the system,
the strategy revealed in the collapse of the Enron Corporation.
Desert regions are currently jockeying for position to export alternative energy
“surpluses” via new grids. System inefficiencies and the sheer acreage of land impacted by
“farms” and grids have all the makings of a desert disaster. Solar and wind generation are
“greener” than coal or nuclear generation; that does not change the problems associated
with exportive use of any resource.
16.10 “Exportive Economics” Elephant
The issue of “exportive” economics remains under the radar of most discussions about
development, desert or otherwise. It is the elephant in the room, widely ignored. Thus it
may be premature to ask what desert cities and rural residents can do about the problem—
the first order of business is to acknowledge the problem.
Once communities recognize that exportive economics must be better managed, the
following suggestions and observations may be helpful:
• Any community, rural or urban, that is serious about sustainability and living
within regional carrying capacity must consider transport distances . Most green
building programs, as well as local food and buy-local initiatives, set a radius for
preferred procurement. However, many schemes (e.g., modular buildings, smart
grids) are promoted as sustainable without evaluating the true costs of transport
and installation.
• Decreasing dependence on removable resources requires reduction of consumption ,
conservation, reuse, and recycling, as well as the closely related need for durable
rather than disposable design. (Disposal also 'removes' resources.)
• Focusing on local and on-site resources can have surprising results. The Architecture
and Landscape-Architecture building at the University of Arizona, Tucson, for
example, has a 1 ac landscape designed explicitly to “live off the wastes of the
building”(Figure 16.9).* Much of the garden was constructed of “urbanite,” that is,
demolition waste. The entire landscape, formerly a parking lot, is irrigated by roof-
harvested rainwater, condensate reclaimed from the HVAC system, and mineral-
rich water from backflushing the university's drinking-water wells. “People think
the desert lacks water,” says Ron Stoltz, chair of the Landscape department; “on
this project, we're drowning in it.” Similarly, the Yuma wetlands restoration project
* See Sorvig. 19 The quote is from the garden's designer, Christy TenEyck.