The U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has released a final environmental impact statement (EIS) for the Desert Harvest solar photovoltaic (PV) project proposed in Riverside County, Southern California.

In the EIS, the BLM recommends that the project be reduced from 1,208 acres of public land to 1,044 acres acres, with a corresponding reduction in output from 150 megawatt (MW) to 135 MW, in order to avoid impacts to rare plant species. EDF Renewable Energy (San Diego, California, U.S.) is developing the plant.

The proposed project includes the PV plant, an on-site substation and a 230 kV transmission line. The agency also proposes co-locating the gen-tie with an already approved gen-tie line for the Desert Sunlight PV project.

The EIS also includes a proposed amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan. The publication of the final EIS opens a protest period before approval, which will conclude on December 5th, 2012.

2012-11-16 | Courtesy: BLM | solarserver.com © Heindl Server GmbH

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