There is an unusual piece of California desert where two very different chapters of American technology meet. In 2018, the U.S. Air Force signed a 35-year lease for underused Mojave desert land. Eight years later, the site hosts 1.9 million solar panels, turning a historic aircraft testing ground into a massive renewable-energy hub. The Edwards Sanborn solar and battery plant now powers over 238,000 homes.
The land around Edwards Air Force Base was once valued because its enormous dry lakebeds gave experimental aircraft something rare: a vast, naturally flat surface with no conventional runway required. Today, nearby and partly on the same military landscape, engineers have built one of the largest solar and battery projects in the United States.
