BrightSource Solar Scales Back Plans to Protect Desert Tortoise
Major US solar company Brightsource Energy has announced plans to scale back a proposed solar thermal power plant in the California desert to protect the habitat of the endangered desert tortoise. The move is a compromise to environmental groups that have been clashing with several big solar companies in recent years over the impact of hundreds of utility-scale solar projects in the Southwest.
The solar project in question is Brightsource’s Ivanpah solar power plant, which was originally planned to consist of three phases (Ivanpah 1, 2 and 3) totaling 400 megawatts of solar thermal power. The plant would have covered more than five square miles of the pristine Mojave Desert. However, last week Brightsource submitted revised plans that will reduce the area of the plant by 12 percent. The last and largest phase will be reduced by 23 percent and consist of only one power tower, as opposed to the five initially planned.
The change will protect some of the local land most important to the desert tortoise, including a section that would have required the most grading — scraping desert flora, fauna and rock clean — and a northern region that houses large natural storm water features.
Before this latest announcement, Brightsource Energy already canceled one solar project in the Broadwell Lake region of the Mojave due to concerns about that project’s effect on local wildlife. Such concessions mark victories for environmental groups, led in the legislature by California senator Dianne Feinstein, and illustrate that big solar companies are more interested in getting long-delayed projects underway rather than continue to battle environmentalists.
Indeed, the quagmire that many concentrated solar power (CSP) projects have found themselves in has led many in the solar industry to turn their focus to smaller, distributed generation projects that can be placed closer to urban areas with less impact on the local habitat.
Defenders of Wildlife, just one group involved in the fight to protect local wildlife and habitat from renewable energy projects, say that the population of the sensitive desert tortoise has decreased by 90 percent in the last 50 years due in part to human impact. They estimate that there are now less than 100,000 of the creatures alive today. A fact, it would appear, that Brightsource Energy has been forced to acknowledge and compensate for by scaling down its ambitious plans.
Source: Business Green
Photo Credit: NWF.org
Posted on February 22nd in Solar News by Dan.
February 22nd, 2010 at 2:52 pm
I think that’s the danger with any new technology – trying to anticipate any downsides. You’re right, it’s important to take a step back and see what else we’re affecting!
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:17 pm
You said it, Becky. It’s very important to find the happy balance between going large scale and still protecting the earth!
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
Interesting, and thought provoking. I am sure there are additional factors also going on. What I like is that the pressure is moving things towards distributed systems. As the Internet shows, distributed power generation has many advantages — two chief ones being avoidance of control focused on major corporations, the other being greater efficiency via loca transmission and less disturbance of remote sites such as in this article
February 22nd, 2010 at 3:55 pm
Many factors happening, but very important that at least concerns on all fronts are being addressed as that is the true passion of the green movement and saving this planet. I hope that more and more moves to distributed as you are pointing out…There are plenty of open rooftops, roads, and new architectural designs for solar, wind, and other renewables to be incorporated that doesn’t disturb (more of) nature (than already has by said housing)!
February 22nd, 2010 at 5:48 pm
Very nice to see the renewable/green energy companies taking on a more responsible view of the environment. I guess it is to be expected, considering most of these companies realize it is the environment from which all of these renewables come from and therefore deserving of respect and good stewardship.
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:19 pm
There is plenty of space available on the roofs of businesses and homes. Let’s tap that first.
February 22nd, 2010 at 6:24 pm
I applaud BrightSource Solar for doing the right thing for the California Desert Tortoise and for consumers hungry for green power. I worked with Luz Engineering in the 1980s as they installed the solar thermal fields in the Mojave. It may cost a little more but we simply must not let “greenwash” and the excitement over game-changing technologies blind us to our responsibilities to care for the voiceless creatures of the planet. 250 million years on the Earth and in the past 50 years, 50% population vanished of all tortoises and turtles. We can do better.
February 25th, 2010 at 8:31 am
This will continue to be an issue, as we try to find the balance between green energy projects and the desire to protect wild spaces – which are often the best sites for solar and wind technology to be built.
March 28th, 2010 at 10:10 pm
[...] In February, BrightSource made another move to quell public concern by announcing it would reduce the size of a proposed 400-megawatt solar thermal power plant that it initially said would cover five square miles of the Mojave. The new plan calls for reducing the area needed for the plant 12 percent. Reason: the company said i… [...]