MARK WAITE / PVT A series of photovoltaic solar panels are located among the date palms of Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park. Advertisement

DEATH VALLEY, Calif. -- A golfer playing the 17th hole at the Furnace Creek course with a horrendous slice could almost hit one of the photovoltaic panels that will soon be producing solar power.

Xanterra Parks and Resorts Director of Environmental Health and Safety Joel Southall said the installation of the solar power grid at Death Valley National Park required clearing four acres starting last November, removing 144 date palms. Some of the palms were dead or too damaged to relocate, he said.

The solar grid will be enough to power 400 homes, Southall said.

"The power generated by the panels won't directly power the resort here. Our system is so large that we have to tie directly into the grid," he said. "The electricity generated would be one-third of our annual usage for the (Furnace Creek Inn) and the ranch combined."

Southall said the panels are impact resistant to hail and were tested by shooting golf balls at them. The panels are expected to be online by the end of this month, he said.

"If you can pick one spot in the country where this is probably a good idea, Death Valley is on the short list for sure. The thing is the type of panels we put in -- solar voltaic panels -- there's a layer of silicone crystals that actually use the sun's energy but not the sun's heat and they actually produce less at higher temperatures. They love 30 degrees Centigrade," Southall said.

The photo voltaic panels are estimated to be 40 percent more productive than an average system installed in the country because of the abundant hours of sunlight in the park, he said.

Death Valley averages only 1.9 inches of precipitation per year, the driest place in North America. Average high temperatures reach 115 degrees in July. Xanterra actually owns the Furnace Creek resort and has funded the solar project, Southall said.

"It will be one of the largest if not the largest, privately-owned solar facility project in the country. There's much larger projects but they're publicly owned," he said.

The payback time on large, commercial solar projects like the one at Furnace Creek is shorter than smaller, residential projects, Southall said.

But he added, "It's a little bit up in the air. The payback for a project like this depends on the energy prices. Energy prices aren't projected to go anywhere but up."

The photovoltaic panels can be seen from the picnic area near the Furnace Creek village fronting on the golf course.

"It has a pretty minimal, visual impact on the property," Southall said. Referring to the uprooting of the date palms, he said, "There were people concerned about them because they had been here for a long time and they were part of the historical landscape."