California regulators on Wednesday recommended that the state’s first new big solar power plant in nearly two decades be approved after a two-and-half-year review of its environmental impact on the Mojave Desert.
The recommendation by staff members of the California Energy Commission — which still must be accepted by the commission board — comes three weeks after the federal Department of Energy offered the project’s builder, BrightSource Energy, a $1.37 billion loan guarantee to construct the 392-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System.
The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and the Center for Biological Diversity favor solar energy projects, but objected to building the BrightSource power plant in the Ivanpah Valley of Southern California, saying it would harm rare plants and animals like the desert tortoise.
Other environmentalists argued that the project, which features thousands of mirrors that focus the sun on 459-foot-tall towers, would mar the visual beauty of the desert.
In an assessment filed on Tuesday, energy commission staff members found that a smaller version of the project that BrightSource proposed last month would mitigate any damage to several protected plant species on the site.
Environmentalists, however, had said the downsized version of the power plant would not sufficiently protect rare species and continued to push for the project’s relocation to more disturbed land.
The commission reviewers determined the visual impact of the Ivanpah power plant could not be reduced but recommended that the commission’s board license the project because of “overriding considerations.”
“It will provide critical environmental benefits by helping the state reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, and these positive attributes must be weighed against the project’s adverse impacts,” Terry O’Brien, a deputy director at the energy commission, wrote in a memorandum filed Wednesday. “It is because of these benefits and the concerns regarding the adverse impacts that global warming will have upon the state and our environment, including desert ecosystems, that staff believes it would be appropriate for the commission to approve the project.”
But he cautioned that the recommendation should not be interpreted as a green light for other desert solar projects. “Staff’s position on the I.S.E.G.S. project should not be read as a blanket endorsement of all solar projects,” Mr. O’Brien wrote.
He noted that the Ivanpah power plant would be built near two casinos, a golf course and transmission lines.
“The staff may not support an override for a project in a more remote location,” wrote Mr. O’Brien.
While Wednesday’s action moves the project closer to being licensed, it still must also receive federal approval, as it would be built on property leased from the Bureau of Land Management.