The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has approved a 500 MW solar power project to be developed on 3,140 acres of its land whose location in Riverside County, California. BLM says the project is expected to provide clean power to about 130,000 homes and generate employment for more than 1,000 individuals.
The 500 MW Palen Solar Project will be developed by EDF Renewable Energy that will also construct a 7-mile single circuit 230 kV interconnection transmission line to deliver power through the Southern California Edison Red Bluff Substation.
As per information on EDF Renewables website, the project is estimated to yield up to $5.3 million in local sales tax revenues. Construction is expected to take 2.5 years. The company acquired this project from Spain's Abengoa in 2015, the same year it submitted its development plan to the BLM. Having secured the approval from BLM, the project will enter construction before the end of 2018. The 500 MW project is expected to enter operation in 2020.
California is currently a hot bed for new utility scale solar power project construction activities. Swinerton Renewable Energy has broken ground on a 200 MW Mount Signal 2 PV project in Calexico, while at the same time another 200 MW Wright solar project entered construction phase in the state's Central Valley (see 200 MW California PV Project Enters Construction).