Riverside County approves massive new solar plant

Riverside County's Board of Supervisors signed off on a major new solar plant Tuesday, voting unanimously to approve a 485-megawatt, 3,600-acre project near Blythe.

Clean energy advocates and many environmental groups have supported the proposed Blythe Mesa solar plant, which would be built on private, previously disturbed land. The project would power about 180,000 homes and generate more than $500,000 in annual revenue for Riverside County through the county's $150-per-acre solar fee.

County Supervisor John Benoit, a longtime renewable energy advocate, praised the Blythe Mesa project at a supervisors meeting last month, when the board nearly approved the project before delaying the final vote a few weeks.

"We're moving in the right direction to try and make sure that we pass along a better world to our kids and grandkids," Benoit said. "We have tried to figure out ways to do this in an environmentally responsible way, and one of the key factors, in the environmental community, is that this is on previously disturbed lands."

Blythe Mesa is still far from becoming a reality. The project's developer, the Los Angeles-based Renewable Resources Group, hasn't found a buyer for the electricity it would generate, a key sticking point before construction can begin.

In addition to building clean energy projects, the Renewable Resources Group owns farming companies, including Coachella table grape grower Sun World International and Thermal's Oasis Date Gardens.

Spokesman Tom Eisenhauer said the company exclusively develops renewable energy projects on private, previously disturbed lands near transmission lines, as favored by many environmental groups. The company first proposed the Blythe Mesa project in April 2011.

"Riverside County is very capable and very professional, and it's been an extensive analysis of the project," Eisenhauer said. "It's in the kind of place that a lot of people think solar projects should be."

Blythe Mesa's approval is a local victory for California's large-scale solar industry, which has slowed over the past year in the face of financial, regulatory and environmental obstacles. A key 30 percent federal tax credit is scheduled to drop to 10 percent at the end of 2016, and California's major utilities already have most of the solar energy they need to meet the state's clean energy mandate, which requires them to buy 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020.

Several large-scale solar projects have also stalled or been abandoned due to environmental concerns, with local conservation groups opposing projects they say would harm desert species and ecosystems. The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan might eventually pave the way for fast-tracked solar development in parts of the desert, but the state-federal planning effort has thus far been derailed by criticisms from renewable energy companies and environmental groups.

Despite those challenges, there have been signs that large-scale solar development is on the upswing in Riverside County.

First Solar is moving forward with plans to build a massive solar farm in eastern Riverside County, more than seven years after it first proposed the 4,800-acre, 300-megawatt Desert Quartzite solar plant. Health care giant Kaiser Permanente said in February it would buy 110 megawatts of electricity from a Riverside County solar project, paving the way for NextEra Energy Resources to begin construction on the 485-megawatt, 4,000-acre Blythe project.

And in Sacramento, lawmakers are considering legislation that would raise the state's renewable energy mandate to 50 percent by 2030, a target endorsed by Gov. Jerry Brown. That goal is likely to become law, giving solar developers a reason for optimism that utilities will keep buying large quantities of clean energy.

"It feels like it's an improving environment for solar projects in California, and so we're hopeful," Eisenhauer said.

Blythe Mesa still needs the Bureau of Land Management to approve a transmission line that would cross federal land, although that approval is more of a formality at this point. The project cleared its biggest hurdle when it won the support of environmental groups like Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, whose opposition has helped slow or sink other solar farms.

"The alternatives to the project do not offer any substantial environmental benefits largely because the previously disturbed condition of the majority of the lands within the project site makes this a superior site," a coalition of seven environmental groups wrote in a public comment letter last year.

Sammy Roth covers energy for The Desert Sun. He can be reached at sammy.roth@desertsun.com, (760) 778-4622 and @Sammy_Roth.