by: David R. Baker  |  Visit article original @ The San Francisco Chronicle

Picking the right place for an immense solar power plant or wind farm is a tricky business, one that can turn natural allies into enemies.

An open stretch of desert might look empty to a renewable-power developer who wants to blanket a few hundred acres with solar panels or mirrors. To environmentalists, the same spot could be vital habitat for an endangered lizard or bird - an ecosystem too delicate to touch.

Now, a collaboration between Google and two leading environmental groups intends to head off those fights.

A new mapping tool on Google Earth shows renewable-power developers where they can - and can’t - build. Working on grants from Google’s philanthropic arm, the National Audubon Society and the Natural Resources Defense Council pulled together maps of endangered species habitats, national parks and other forms of protected land and loaded all that data into Google Earth.

Zoom in on the Mojave Desert, a favorite spot for solar power
projects, and you can see every bit of land that is off-limits
to developers. The no-go zones appear as brightly colored shapes
superimposed on maps and aerial photographs. The new tool,
called the Path to Green Energy, went live Wednesday, and anyone
can use it.

Solar and wind companies badly want to avoid fights that could
slow down their projects, said Johanna Wald, senior attorney at
the Natural Resources Defense Council.

“They kept asking me, ‘Please tell me where I shouldn’t go,’”
she said. “They understand it doesn’t make good business sense
to go someplace that’s going to generate a lot of controversy.”

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