Desert Sunlight Holdings, a subsidiary of First Solar, will develop and operate the solar-photovoltaic (PV) facility in Riverside County.
On complettion the solar faiclity will generate enough energy to power over 165,000 homes.
The facility will use First Solar’s thin film PV technology, which generates electricity with low visual impact, no air emissions, waste production or water use, and has the smallest carbon footprint of any PV technology.
An on-site substation and a 230kV generation tie line will connect the project to the Red Bluff substation which will convert the power from 230kV to 500kV for transmission on Southern California Edison’s regional grid.
The Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Desert Sunlight, the National Park Service and other stakeholders have collaborated on reduction of the facility’s total footprint from 19,000 acres down to 4,144 acres.
In addition, the BLM is requiring that Desert Sunlight provide funding for acquisition and enhancement of about 7,500 acres of suitable habitat for desert tortoise and other sensitive wildlife species to help mitigate the project’s potential impacts.
