Sort of surprised why (North) American deserts don't have start ups in theirs.
The simple fact of the matter is that utility scale solar requires SOME water resources to keep things working (to wash the panels/mirrors, if nothing else). Mind you, that water demand is nowhere near as high as the water demand for a coal fired power plant (funny that ...
), you still need to expend some water on utility scale solar.
And strangely enough, the desert regions in CONUS have the geography and environment to "win the lottery" on solar potential. The US deserts have been called the "Saudi Arabia of Solar" in terms of how favorable solar power generation at industrial scale is ... but there are, shall we call them "entrenched interests" that want to delay the deployment of solar power for as long as possible (I wonder why?
).
Something something ... competition is good ... except when the competition disrupts
US, then it's BAD™.
The second problem is that the deserts that are "ideal for solar power generation" are not where large populations of people (and thus, demand for electricity) are found. So you get back into the transmission lines/distribution network problem, where even if you build a terrawatt industrial solar plant out in the desert, there's no infrastructure to tie into to export all that power through.
The third problem is ... permitting.
There are a LOT of renewable power projects in the US that are fully funded, some of them are even built and ready to be online ... and the utilities and regulators are just playing Silly Bunnies™ with the permitting process (so as to delay the implementation of solar for as long as possible). It's all a big game of "chicken" where the provincial interests want SOMEBODY ELSE to Go First and prove that delaying this stuff is madness and idiocy.
Fortunately, Texas and (of all places) California are showing that unreasonable delays in getting solar, wind and battery storage online is sheer madness and idiocy when it comes to making energy more affordable.
The fourth problem is "the grid can't handle it!" nonsense ... which starts with the assumption that Capitalism along with the Laws of Supply & Demand have somehow magically been banished. After all, aren't people always waxing prophetic about The Invisible Hand Of The Market and how all you need to do is "build a better mousetrap" and so on and so forth?
The solutions to the (by now) antiquated Dumb Grid that we've inherited ARE available. Simple solutions like Reconductoring (take the wires off the transmission lines and replace them with updated wire systems) can DOUBLE OR MORE the capacity of existing electrical transmission lines (all you need is investment money to make it happen). Building out smarter grid monitoring systems that permit more accurate measurements of loads and rates of power transmission, rather than just "guessing" with wide margins needed for safety (because you don't ACTUALLY know) will go a long way to increasing grid capacity.
Fortunately, the US seems to have finally hit the tipping point.
Change is COMING ...