Recently in Concentrating Solar
Concentrating Solar:
The U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service confirms that a protected peregrine falcon was found severely injured on the site of BrightSource Energy's Ivanpah solar facility in September. It died shortly after. Solar flux is being eyed as a possible cause of death.
Concentrating Solar:
The proposed solar power plant would have a "substantial adverse impact" on visual resources in Riverside County's Chuckwalla Valley, including the views from vantage points in two protected wildernesses and Joshua Tree National Park, according to a state assessment.
Concentrating Solar:
The Quechan Indian Tribe minces no words about a proposed solar energy project in Riverside County.
Concentrating Solar:
You have until October to comment on the environmental assessment for the Palen solar project, which may affect a newly discovered rare plant species.
Concentrating Solar:
The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System in the Mojave Desert suffered a setback in mid-May when a rupture was found in a tube intended to heat steam for use generating power at one of its units. That rupture followed close on the heels of three "ignition incidents."
Concentrating Solar:
The Rio Mesa Solar Electric Generating System, which would have put two 750-foot-tall power towers on a bluff in view of the Colorado River, had attracted criticism for its effect on fossil resurces and wildlife, as well as the cost of the power it would have generated.
Concentrating Solar:
California Energy Commission staff say they need a lot more information from a builder on a large solar project's impacts to wildlife, archaeology, and other resources before they can sign off on the project.
Solar:
With the cancellation of one of the biggest solar projects proposed for the California desert, the utility-scale solar boom of 2009 continues to falter. And analysts deep in the energy industry are taking notice.
Concentrating Solar:
The developer of a huge proposed solar power project that was once slated to cover 12.5 square miles of still-intact desert habitat has walked away from the idea, according to documents released by the California Energy Commission.
Concentrating Solar:
The announcement comes after a year of retrenchment and altered goals for BrightSource.
Concentrating Solar:
The Interior Department approved three new renewable energy projects on public lands in Arizona and Nevada on Monday. But one of those plants probably won't be built until the developer finds a California utility to buy the power, and that might not be easy.
Concentrating Solar:
A deal has been made to preserve 7,000 acres of land in the Mojave Desert as mitigation for the Ivanpah solar project. But not everyone's happy with that.
Concentrating Solar:
The proposed Palen Solar Electric Generating System east of Desert Center could be visible from as far away as the Mojave National Preserve, Mount San Jacinto and the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge in Arizona, according to preliminary calculations by ReWire.
Concentrating Solar:
The concerns expressed in the letter may have serious ramifications for other BrightSource projects.
Concentrating Solar:
The company cited scheduling issues and transmission obstacles as its reasons for the decision.
Wildlife:
BrightSource experts say that the California Energy Commission oversimplifies the issue of solar flux injury to birds, but one of those experts may have made a sensible suggestion that the firm won't like much.
Concentrating Solar:
According to the California Energy Commission's scientific staff, BrightSource Energy's Hidden Hills project will "almost certainly kill or injure" eagles and other special status species of birds.
Concentrating Solar:
Both BrightSource and the California Energy Commission staff agree that there's a level of concentration of solar flux from the proposed Hidden Hills solar project that will harm birds. Where the disagreement arises is just what that level is.
Concentrating Solar:
Inyo County drops its opposition to the Hidden Hills solar project for $15 million.
Concentrating Solar:
BrightSource Energy tested the effects of their concentrated solar on a number of dead birds as part of their studies of the proposed Hidden Hills solar facility in Inyo County, but the company has since refused to release the photos to the public because they're too "inflammatory."
News and analysis about renewable energy in California. Blog host Chris Clarke is an environmental writer of two decades standing. He currently lives in Joshua Tree and can be contacted at: rewire@kcet.org.
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