> One would be a solar powered water elevator that pumped water from the Pacific into the various endorheic basins in Nevada. These could then be drained during cloudy times or peak hours to supplement solar power.

Interesting. I've thought similarly, but for a slightly different purpose. Inland Australia is a massive desert, but there are theories that it was once (at least significantly more of it) a large grassland. Apparently it was mostly destroyed with the introduction of hoofed animals, which pull the roots of grass out as they eat it, as opposed to kangaroo's and other native animals which eat grass without removing the root.

I haven't explored the hard science behind this, but the theory is discussed in the book 'Dark Emu'.

Regardless, it gives hope that the desert could be cultivated in order to support more plants & animals (I'm thinking native rather than for farming purposes).

To realistically kick this off tho it would require huge amounts of fresh water, which Australia sorely lacks.

But we could produce plenty of electricity from solar power, wind power and nuclear power (Australia has enormous uranium reserves and plenty of sun). With cheap power, we could pump and desalinate water into the center of Australia.

Unlike death valley, it's not down hill tho, so it would require long distance pumping.

Interesting to find this project mentioned here which bares some similarities: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Sea%E2%80%93Dead_Sea_Water...