U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell has announced approval of two more solar projects to be located on public lands near the Nevada-California order.
Combined, the solar panel based facilities will have 550MW capacity, enough to power approximately 170,000 homes.
The 300-megawatt Stateline Solar Farm Project in San Bernardino County will create an estimated 400 jobs during construction and 12 permanent jobs during operations.
The 250-megawatt Silver State South Solar Project near Primm, Nevada, will be located adjacent to the 50-megawatt Silver State North Project, the first solar farm on public lands to supply power to the grid. Silver State South will create an estimated 300 jobs during construction and 15 permanent operations jobs.
Significant changes to original design plans and mitigation measures have been put in place for both projects to minimize impacts to wildlife, water, historical, cultural and other resources.
According to the Department of the Interior, the latest projects bring the number of approvals for renewable energy based power generation facilities on public lands to 50.
“Together, the projects could support more than 20,000 construction and operations jobs and, when built, generate nearly 14,000 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power 4.8 million homes,” states a Department press release.
13 of the projects are already generating power, including the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System; which was officially opened this week.
“With today’s milestone of 50 utility-scale renewable energy projects approved on public lands since our standing start in 2009, and with a number of those already producing energy for the nation’s electric grid, our clean energy future is bright,” said Secretary Jewell.
The U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management oversees environmentally responsible development of utility-scale renewable energy projects on public lands as part of the Obama Administration’s efforts to diversify the USA’s energy portfolio and reduce carbon emissions.
