Gerald Freeman walks through the small solar plant that provides 70 kilowatts of power to Nipton, the former ghost town he purchased in the 1980s.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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A truck lumbers down Nipton Road past some of the solar panels that provide 70 kilowatts of electricity, about 80% of the power required by Nipton's 60 residents, its general store and motel.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Gerald Freeman is reflected in the panels in the small solar plant in Nipton, a former ghost town. Collectively, modest-sized projects could provide an enormous electricity boost — and do so for less cost to consumers and less environmental damage to the desert areas where most are located, say advocates of small-scale solar power.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Gerald Freeman stands near his small solar power plant in Nipton. In the distance is a massive, $2.2-billion BrightSource Energy solar plant project. Such large-scale projects are financially efficient for developers, but their size creates transmission inefficiencies and higher costs for ratepayers.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Ron Handley, a maintenance worker in Nipton, looks through the fence surrounding the small solar plant that provides the tiny town its electricity. The massive Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, which will be the largest solar-thermal power plant in the world when it is completed, is in the distance.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Nipton has 60 residents, a general store and a motel, and its own small-scale solar power plant.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Ron Handley walks through Nipton, which could eventually produce as much as 1 megawatt of power. Such small-scale plants can be built near population centers and provide power directly to consumers. Some question why there’s not more of a push for smaller plants.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Recent studies project that California could derive a substantial percentage of its energy needs from rooftop solar installations, whether on suburban homes or city roofs or atop big-box stores. Small solar plants like the one in Nipton could play a role as well.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Lights glow at the Nipton Trading Post thanks to the 70 kilowatts of power generated by the small solar plant in the tiny town. The Obama administration's solar-power initiative has fast-tracked large-scale plants, fueled by low-interest, government-guaranteed loans that cover up to 80% of construction costs. In all, the federal government has paid out more than $16 billion for renewable-energy projects. But small projects usually get little support.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Frankie Thomson plays his guitar with friends at the Whistle Stop Cafe in Nipton. He and his coworkers from a nearby mine live in the tiny desert town that is powered with a small solar plant.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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Workers from a local mine and the massive nearby solar project relax in Nipton.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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The lights at Hotel Nipton, powered by the town's solar plant, twinkle in the evening.

PHOTOGRAPH BY: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

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