Bureau of Land Management officials on Tuesday announced approval of two new solar projects, Arica and Victory Pass, in eastern Riverside County.
Excerpt from this story from the Desert Sun:
There are woodlands in California's harsh desert — palo verde, ironwood and smoke trees that endure fierce heat and little rain by soaking up water from washes that quickly fill during monsoonal storms. Lumbering desert tortoises rely on the same wet washes to eat and mate before burrowing back underground. Rivers of sand provide important habitat for Mojave fringe-toed lizards and other species.
Critics are keeping an eagle eye on those "microphyll" or “small-leaved” woodlands and sandy wildlife corridors, as well as the species that depend on them, as federal officials ramp up plans for huge new solar farms on public lands off Interstate 10 in the dry southeastern portion of the state.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and top U.S. Bureau of Land Management officials on Tuesday announced approval of two new solar projects, Arica and Victory Pass, in eastern Riverside County, and said a third nearby, Oberon, will be approved soon. Together, the three photovoltaic solar panel projects could produce nearly one gigawatt of power and provide electricity for nearly 300,000 homes. Federal officials are pushing to meet a mandate from President Joe Biden and Congress to produce 25 gigawatts of power by 2025. There are currently about 12 gigawatts in operation.
The newly approved California projects are the first on public lands to move forward under the 22.5 million-acre Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan. Critics fear that plan, which covers seven counties, could be undermined if the Oberon project is approved as designed. Company officials dispute that, and federal officials say they are firmly committed to the desert renewable plan's success.
While all three of the new solar developments would require some destruction of habitat and even possible "take" or killing of desert tortoises in exchange for land set-asides elsewhere, the Oberon project has been strongly opposed by a coalition of environmental groups.
Its developers are seeking to build a 500-megawatt project on acreage originally designated for 300 megawatts in the sweeping plan. Active discussions about the project are underway between some of the groups and representatives of Interconnect Power, the Oberon project developer. Federal officials said they expect an agreement to be reached by the new year.
An Interconnect Power representative said the project had already been redesigned three times to try to address environmental concerns. The company will conserve 6,000 acres of desert, providing habitat for tortoise, kit fox and other species, and the project avoids 1,100 acres of woodland habitat. It will set aside woodland habitat at a 5 to 1 ratio to make up for the loss of about 80 acres of what it calls "low quality" woodlands near the freeway, and an incursion of about 55 acres into a buffer zone between the trees and washes and heavy-duty infrastructure.













