California Energy Commission recommends license for Ivanpah solar electric generating system project

Friday, 06 August 2010 02:32

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A California Energy Commission siting committee is recommending the approval of the planned Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Project in San Bernardino County. In its presiding member's proposed decision (PMPD) released Tuesday, the committee said the approximately 370-megawatt facility as mitigated, will have remaining significant impacts on the environment, but found that the benefits the project would provide overrides those impacts. The committee determined the project complies with applicable laws, ordinances, regulations, and standards (LORS). The proposed decision was based solely on the record of facts, which were established during the facility's certification proceeding. The PMPD is not a final decision on the project. The committee released the document for 30 days of public comment and will consider input before bringing the proposed decision to the full five-member Commission. The entire document can be found on the Commission's website at: http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ivanpah/documents/index.html.

BrightSource Energy, Inc. would develop three solar thermal power plants and shared facilities near Ivanpah Dry Lake in San Bernardino County, California on public land managed by the federal Bureau of Land Management in the Mojave Desert. The proposed project would be constructed in three phases: one 120-megawatt (MW) phase and two 125-MW phases and is based on distributed power tower and heliostat mirror technology, in which heliostat (mirror) fields focus solar energy on power tower receivers near the center of each heliostat array to generate steam-driven electricity. If approved by the Commission, the project would start construction in the fall of 2010.

The federal government and the State of California have established the need for the nation and state to increase the development and use of renewable energy in order to enhance the nation's energy independence, meet environmental goals, and create new economic growth opportunities. For more information on Governor Schwarzenegger's Executive Order to advance the state's Renewables Portfolio Standard, go to: http://gov.ca.gov/press-release/13273.

More information on the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System Project is available at: http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ivanpah/index.html.

Source: CEC