Solar power plant planned for Cantil area
Clean energy and 66 new jobs
QUOTE: “This site was selected for the Project due to its location
in Southern California where there is an excellent solar resource.”— Project
application
BY BILL DEAVER
CANTIL — East Kern’s importance as an alternative energy source will
be strengthened if a plan to build a 250 megawatt solar power plant on
a 2,012-acre site 14 miles north of Mojave on Highway 14 is approved. The
site is east of the highway the Union Pacific Railroad’s Lone Pine Branch
tracks.
Beacon Solar, L.L.C., a subsidiary of FPL Energy, L.L.C., which operates
a solar power plant at Kramer Junction, has submitted an application for
certification to the California Energy Commission (CEC), a first step towards
construction.
"At a time of rising fossil fuel costs and increasing concerns about
greenhouse gases, solar energy, like our proposed Beacon Project, can have
a meaningful impact in reducing carbon dioxide emissions that contribute
to global warming,” said Steve Stengel, spokesman for FPL Energy.
“The Project will use well-established parabolic trough solar thermal
technology to produce electrical power using a steam turbine generator
fed from a solar steam generator,” the application notes. “The solar steam
generator receives heated heat transfer fluid from solar thermal equipment
comprised of arrays of parabolic mirrors that collect energy from the sun.”
Beacon is applying to the Los Angeles Dept. of Water and Power (DWP)
for permission to connect the plant to the new electrical substation and
transmission lines DWP is building across Highway 14 from the site to transmit
power from its new wind farm in Pine Tree Canyon. The line will be either
3.5 or 2.3 miles long, depending on which of two routes are selected.
“This site was selected for the Project due to its location in Southern
California where there is an excellent solar resource,” according to the
application filed with the CEC.
Some 66 new jobs would be created to operate the project when it is
completed, and more jobs while it is being built. 836 workers are expected
at the peak of construction.
The application notes that the site has been used extensively for farming
and that the nearby substation and existing and planned power lines make
it “it an ideal site in terms of minimizing environmental impacts.”
Water resources
The application states that the site has available water resources
to allow wet cooling in order to optimize power generation efficiency and
reduce the project cost.
Beacon Solar plans to use concentrated solar parabolic trough mirror
technology as the most proven, reliable and efficient approach to bring
new renewable power generation online.
The Project will use a wet cooling tower for power plant cooling. Water
for cooling tower makeup, process water makeup, and other industrial uses
such as mirror washing, will be supplied from onsite groundwater wells,
which also will be used to supply water for employee use (e.g., drinking,
showers, sinks, and toilets).
Existing onsite wells can supply the needed quantities of water without
significant effects on other users or on the groundwater basin. A package
water treatment system will be used to treat the groundwater to meet potable
standards for employee use and a septic system and onsite leach field will
be used to dispose of sanitary wastewater, according to the application.
Air quality
Although the project will generate some pollutants from its operations,
they will not exceed the threshold above which offsets would be required,
according to the application
In fact, the application claims that. while new PM10 (dust) emissions
are estimated to result from the project, it “will likely actually reduce
overall PM10 emissions in this region. Discussions with personnel at the
Honda Proving Center facility located immediately to the east of the Project
site indicate that the exposed open fields on the Project site are currently
a large source of wind blown dust.”
“By its nature, a solar energy project must keep dust to a minimum
through the use of dust control measures because a film on the mirrors
will reduce their efficiency for power production. Experience at the existing
SEGS facilities at Kramer Junction and Harper Lake has been that PM10 emissions
from driving in the solar field are necessarily negligible. Dust control
is achieved by a combination of soil stabilizers, water from the mirror
washing, and compaction of the driving surface over time; these mitigation
measures will be utilized by the proposed project,” the application notes.
When completed, the project is expected to increase East Kern’s importance
as a leading source of clean, renewable electrical energy.
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