In Our Backyard No. 6: Life in the desert demands resilience, especially when lightning strikes Listen 36 min MORE America s most powerful wind farm 1.5 gigawatts in size, enough to generate electricity for a city of millions is on the edge of the Mojave at the foot of the Tehachapi Pass, site of one of the earliest and still largest collections of windmills in the world. Altogether, there are more than 5,000 turbines in the area, and the newest and largest are nearly 500 feet to the tip of the blade. Photo by Steve Boland/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The California desert is a precious asset, famous for soaring mountains and majestic valleys. But it’s hardly a wasteland. “There’s been human activity for thousands of years,” says Mike Gauthier, Superintendent of the Mojave National Preserve.