BLM MOVES NEW ENERGY AHEAD

Agency Issues Final Environmental Study for Huge Blythe Solar Power Plant
August 22, 2010 (The Solar Home & Business Journal via SunPluggers)

"The federal Bureau of Land Management has issued a final Environmental Impact Statement for a proposed giant solar power complex near the desert city of Blythe, Calif.

"It is the fifth completed environmental study the bureau has issued for a major solar power plant project in Southern California's Colorado and Mojave deserts in the past few weeks. Studies involving several more utility-scale solar proposals remain in the queue for possible release soon."

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"The proposed solar power plants have undergone expedited reviews under a ‘fast-track’ process for solar, wind and power transmission projects on public land administered by the Bureau of Land Management in California. The state is cooperating in the fast-track process…[The projects] may receive final approval by December 2010 and would then be eligible for economic stimulus funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

"The Blythe Solar Power Project is jointly proposed by the companies Solar Millennium and Chevron Energy Solutions. The environmental study says the Blythe complex, consisting of four adjacent but independently operating solar thermal power plants, would have a peak nominal production capacity of 968 megawatts…[It] would use solar parabolic trough technology…[F]ields of curved mirrors would focus heat from the sun on fluid-filled receiver tubes located at the focal point of the parabola."

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"With this approach, already in use for about two decades in the Mojave Desert, a heat transfer fluid is heated to a very high temperature, as much as 750 degrees Fahrenheit, as it circulates through the receiver tubes. The heated fluid is piped through a series of heat exchangers, where the stored heat is released to generate high-pressure steam. The steam is then fed to a traditional steam turbine-generator, from which electricity is produced.

"The Blythe project would be about triple the capacity of the world's largest existing solar power development…[It] would require a new transmission line that would connect to a new substation, where the power could be fed into a major existing set of power lines…According to the Bureau of Land Management, the project, if approved, is expected to be completed in five to six years and would average about 600 employees during construction, including a range of laborers, craftsmen, supervisory personnel, support personnel and management employees. The power station's four plants would provide a total of about 220 permanent jobs when completed…"