There is actually less and less reason to site solar in deserts.

As solar has dropped in price, lots of things we used to do to optimise the expensive solar no longer make sense.

We used to build trackers that would point the cells directly at the sun all day, now that extra complexity can be replaced with just buying more panels.

Similarly, long transmission lines out to deserts can be replaced by more solar spread everywhere that we need it.

But to close, I want to reiterate that if you're reading some article about solar panels destroying the desert it's almost certainly bad-faith bullshit, so don't worry too much about it.