ANOTHER CA SOLAR POWER PLANT GO

Calif. Gov. Schwarzenegger Applauds Approval of Calico Solar Project in Southern California
Valerie Gotten, 31 October 2010 (California Newswire)

"Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger applauded the California Energy Commission (CEC) decision…to approve the Calico Solar Project, the seventh solar thermal power plant licensed by the state in the past two months, totaling 3,493 megawatts (MW) of renewable solar power. The Calico Project will generate 664 MW of clean, renewable energy and create nearly 900 jobs in San Bernardino County…

"The Calico Solar Project is a direct result of the successful partnership between California and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI). In October of 2009, the Governor and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed a historic memorandum of understanding…to ensure timely permitting of renewable energy projects…[It] made California the first state in the nation to work with the DOI through state and federal permitting processes. Projects, including Calico, can receive a 30 percent federal cash grant in lieu of a tax credit under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act by breaking ground or spending at least 5 percent of the projects total costs before December 31, 2010…"

Calico will use SunCatcher technology. (click to enlarge)

"…BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System, another one of the projects jointly processed through the state and federal cooperative model [just broke ground]…The approximately $2 billion Ivanpah project is the first-of-its-kind to be built on federal land and will produce 370 MW of clean, renewable energy and create more than 1,000 jobs.

"California has consistently led the nation in renewable energy development. The state currently has over 270 renewable energy projects, totaling approximately 70,000 MW, seeking to build and run facilities…[T]he CEC has now approved seven [of ninde pending] large-scale solar projects totaling nearly 3,500 MW in clean, renewable energy that will likely start construction in California by the end of this year…If all nine projects are approved, more than 4,300 MW of solar power…providing more than 8,000 construction jobs and more than 1,000 operational jobs [will be built]."

Ivanpah will use solar power tower technology. (click to enlarge)

"Additionally, there are 12 large wind and photovoltaic projects working to break ground…California is also home to the world’s largest wind energy project, the [1,550 MW] Alta Wind Energy Center….[which will create] more than 1,500 domestic manufacturing, construction and operation and maintenance jobs…[contribute] more than $600 million to the local economy in Kern County…increase the installed wind power capacity in California by 30 percent… reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 52 million metric tons, the equivalent to taking 446,000 cars off the road and result in $1.2 billion in direct local economic benefits over the life of the project…

"Governor Schwarzenegger has a strong and proven commitment to expanding California’s clean energy development…[He] signed into law a new program [created by SB X8 34] to make it easier to conserve land for endangered species and for developers to build renewable energy projects in California…signed an Executive Order directing the California Air Resources Board (ARB) to adopt regulations increasing the state’s RPS to 33 percent by 2020…established the world’s first [Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS)]…[created the $2.9 billion] Million Solar Roofs Initiative…[which] will lead to one million solar roofs in California by the year 2018, provide 3,000 megawatts of clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3 million tons…[and] championed and signed SB 71…exempting all clean technology manufacturing equipment from sales tax…"