Followthe U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced approval of two solar projects totaling 450 MW and a major transmission project, all in California, as well as a supplement to the agency’s rules for solar energy development on public lands in six Western states.
The agency approved the 250 MW Abengoa Mojave Solar Project, a parabolic trough concentrating solar power (CSP) project, the Imperial Solar Energy Center, a 200 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) project, and the Devers-Palo Verde No. 2 Transmission Line Project.
The DOI’s actions received rapid praise from the U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA, Washington D.C., U.S.).
“President Obama has put more emphasis and focus on advancing solar energy in the United States than any previous administration and that commitment has been reflected in Secretary Salazar’s work to develop projects on public lands,” said SEIA President and CEO Rhone Resch.
“Going forward, SEIA will continue to offer the industry’s perspective to help Interior develop a final Solar PEIS that does not impose new regulatory burdens on project developers and allows utility-scale solar projects to be built on public lands in an efficient, responsible and transparent manner.”
Transmission project to bring power from big solar projects to Southern California consumers
The DOI notes that both the Abengoa Mojave project and the Imperial Solar project will be built on previously disturbed agricultural land. The Imperial Solar project is located on private land, with a right-of-way on BLM land.
A number of large CSP projects approved by the DOI and the California Energy Commission and sited on undisturbed desert land have encountered legal challenges for their impacts on wildlife habitat and cultural resources.
The Devers-Palo Verde No. 2 Transmission project is a 500 kV line that will deliver power from a number of large solar projects to communities in Southern California. The 185 kilometer-long line will extend from a substation near Blythe, California, to a substation in Palm Springs, California.
The DOI states that the three projects, plus a fourth wind project in Oregon which was concurrently approved, will create more than 1,300 construction jobs and add more than 550 MW of electric capacity.
DOI to prepare supplement to PEIS
Per the agency’s announcement, the DOI will prepare a supplement to the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Solar Energy Development (PEIS), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Energy, for release in the fall of 2011.
When finalized, the PEIS will establish a framework for developing utility scale solar projects in “Solar Energy Zones” on public lands in six Western states.
The initial document was released in December 2010 for public comment. The DOI states that this supplement will address key issues identified through public comments and improve the plan, including developing criteria for identifying Solar Energy Zones such as additional surveys of biological and cultural resources in the zones.
The DOI states that no new Solar Energy Zones will be analyzed in the supplemental document, but that new zones are being considered through ongoing BLM state and regional planning efforts.
DOI to study more large wind, solar projects
Finally, the agency announced that it will begin environmental analysis of a large solar project and two wind projects totaling 370 MW.
Source: solarserver
