Final Environmental Impact Statement Released: Mohave County Wind Project, Arizona

May 18, 2013 - BP Wind Energy North America Inc., submitted right-of-way applications to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation) to construct, operate, maintain and decommission a wind energy facility and associated infrastructure in the White Hills area of northwestern Mohave County, Arizona. BP Wind Energy applied to Western Area Power Administration to interconnect the proposed project to one of two transmission lines crossing the Project Area. The proposed wind farm site would occupy 38,099 acres of public land managed by the BLM, Kingman Field Office, and 8,960 acres of Federal land managed by the Reclamation. More information >>here.

Blade Throw at Ocotillo Wind Project

Photo by Jim Pelley

May 17, 2013 - A 10-ton turbine blade broke off a wind turbine generator at the Ocotillo, CA wind project yesterday. Photos >>here.

Condors Left Unprotected

May 11, 2013 - The Obama Administration’s poor conservation legacy continues. US Fish and Wildlife Service announced that wind projects will not be prosecuted for accidental "take" of endangered California condors if they are killed by giant wind turbine blades in projects springing up in their ancestral mountain homelands. Specifically the Terra-Gen wind project in the Tehachapi Mountains of Kern County, CA. Condors have just barely started to have success increasing populations after a long captive breeding program and years in the 1980s and 1990s when no condors were flying freely in the wild. Lead bullets continue to lead to condor deaths, and the species is still in danger of decline after re-introductions back into historic ranges.

"This is the first time we've authorized incidental takes of California condors — and we're approaching them very cautiously," said Fish and Wildlife Director Daniel Ashe.

See the Los Angeles Times article and the Mojave Desert Blog.

>>News Archive

BrightSource's solar thermal power tower proposal in Ivanpah Valley, San Bernardino County CA >>here. Updates >>here

BrightSource Energy's second solar thermal power tower proposal in Mesquite Valley, Inyo County CA >>here

500 MW solar power plant in Chuckwalla Valley ten miles east of Desert Center, on good Mojave fringe-toed lizard habitat. BrightSource Energy and Abengoa partners on project. >>here

BrightSource Energy's third solar thermal power tower proposal along the Colorado River near Blythe, San Bernardino County CA>>here

Many applications for giant solar developments in this Colorado Desert area of Chuckwalla Valley in Riverside County, California >>here.

NextEra Energy proposes to build a 250-megawatt parabolic trough solar thermal plant near Ford Dry Lake in Chuckwalla Valley, Riverside County, California. Water is a concern. >>here

750 MW photovoltaic project in McCoy Wash, Riverside County near Blythe, by NextEra Energy. >>here

A huge 1,000 MW photovoltaic panelproject in McCoy Wash, Riverside County with a 5,950 acre footprint. Cultural issues, Fringe-toed lizards, and Desert tortoise are concerns. >>here

Solar Reserve Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project. A 100 MW power tower project with molten salt storage, near Tonopah, Nevada >>here.

This project is larger than the city of Berkeley. K Road project by the proposed Cady Mountains Wilderness, San Bernardino County, California >>here. Updates >>here

This project is no longer active. In Amargosa Valley, Nevada, a 250-megawatt parabolic trough solar thermal plant that may be upgraded to 500 MW, with 70 MW photovoltaic. >>here

This project is no longer active. Former Tessera Stirling dish project on 6,500 acres sited on archaeologically sensitive Colorado Desert with Flat-tailed horned lizards, west of El Centro, Imperial County, California >>here

Chevron Energy Solutions is proposing to build a 516-acre photovoltaic project on Mojave Desert with Joshua trees and tortoises. Some call the area disturbed, but we disagree >>here

7,500-acre project in Amargosa Valley, Nevada, on rare and endemic beetle habitat >>here.

Photovoltaic panel proposal for Kern County, California, in the West Mojave Desert >>here. Updates page >>here

Los Angeles Department of Water and Power seeks to control dust by industrializing part of this important migratory bird habitat in the Owens Valley, Inyo County, California >>here. Updates >>here

Duke Energy's proposal to place giant wind turbines over the Searchlight Hills, Clark County, Nevada >>here.

Iberdrola plans on various wind and solar projects in this remote Mojave Desert valley southeast of Death Valley National Park, San Bernardino County, California >>here.

RES proposal to place wind turbines on a roadless pristine mountain in San Bernardino County, California, home to the rare Ford's Indra swallowtail. >>here

Pattern Energy's project on the boundary of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, Imperial County, California >>here.

Pattern Energy wants to build up to 85 giant 400-foot tall wind turbines in Spring Valley east of Ely, Nevada, 12 miles from the boundary of Great Basin National Park. The site is home to Pygmy rabbits, Sage grouse, and Pronghorn antelope. DEADLINE for Comments January 15, 2010! >>here

On the White Hills and fan next to Lake Mead National Recreation Area in northwestern Arizona, near Mt. Tipton Wilderness and by places where California condors have been sighted from Grand Canyon reintroductions >>here

This project has been canceled. A proposed 990 MW wind farm on 30,000 acres of beautiful Great Basin mountain range with elk and sage grouse, a popular recreation area in Lincoln County, Nevada near Pioche >>here

Wind Project Impacts - Photos of Construction in the Mojave Desert and Tehachapi Grassland >>here

An area that should be part of Joshua Tree National Park, in Riverside County, California. Related to the renewable energy projects along the I-10 corridor >>here

Southern California Edison proposal to upgrade and add lines in southern Nevada and eastern California in Ivanpah Valley, to deliver future renewable energy to coastal cities >>here

Southern California proposed mega-powerline to supposedly link wind and solar in the eastern deserts and Baja to coastal cities in San Diego County, but also tied to fossil fuel >>here

SCE Proposes 2 New Renewable Energy Transmission Projects in Mojave Desert >>here

Sign the Petition by Solar Done Right (scroll down to petition on left front page)

This initiative will bring citizens together to demand a more cost-effective, faster, less damaging, and more democratic path to renewable energy. Our goal is to move renewable energy development away from our ecologically rich and agriculturally important lands and onto rooftops and already-developed areas. Solar Done Right will take this petition to top energy policymakers in our government: the White House, Department of Interior, Department of Energy.

Community Power: Decentralized Renewable Energy in California by Al Weinrub >>1.22 MB PDF

BRW Recommends Agencies Follow the Final Report of the Independant Science Advisors to the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan >>here

New Desert Tortoise Species Described, Mojave Population Unique, Implications for Big Solar and Conservation >>here

Revised Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan Fails to Address Renewable Energy Sprawl >>here

Carbon Sequestration in the Desert: Dr. Michael Allen Paper on Gaps in Desert Research >>here

Water in the Desert: Wet-Cooling and Dry-Cooling Technology for Solar Thermal Projects >>here

Prioritizing Where to Site Renewable Energy in California: California Energy Commission Workshop May 2012 >>here

Solar Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for CA, NV, AZ, NM, CO, UT >>here

Bureau of Land Management plan to designate renewable energy zones in the desert Southwest >>here

Good Plan, Too Late: Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan New Website >>here

March 24, 2010 at UC Riverside, California: Expediting Solar and Wind in the Desert >>here

Expediting Big Solar: Padilla Bill Signed Into Law at Harper Lake (Where CSP Plants May Be Fighting Over Water) >>here

Congressional Field Hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. Chaired by Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), hosted by Rep. Mary Bono Mack (R-Palm Springs) >>here

Reid and Heller Introduce Competitive Lease Solar and Wind Bill for Public Lands >>here

California Renewable Energy Coordination Offices, Renewable Energy Action Team, and the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan >>here. California Fast-Track solar and wind projects >>here. November 2009 summary of projects in Chuckwalla Valley >>here; more projects >>here

Proposal for Mojave Trails National Monument and Sands to Snow National Monument, some new wilderness areas, some wilderness study areas removed, and a giant plan for a Mitigation Zone for renewable energy projects >>here. Abengoa Solar and Cogentrix Energy support the bill, according to the California Wilderness Coalition

January 2011: Senator Feinstein Crafts New California Desert Protection Bill Minus Solar Provisions >>here

^February 2013 - Layered limestone hills near Goodspings, Nevada. Mojave yuccas and Joshua trees are green against the gray winter shrubs.