Feds Approves $6 billion Blythe Solar Power Project

Feds Approves $6 billion Blythe Solar Power Project

Feds has approved the largest solar project ever planned in Mojave Desert near Blythe, California.

The $6 billion Blythe Solar Power Project, being developed by Solar Millennium, a German solar developer, marks a boom in solar power on federal lands. According to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, the project showed in a real way how harnessing their own renewable resources could create good jobs at home.

The project, the sixth solar power development approved by the Interior Department in October, expands over 7,000 acres of public land near the Arizona border. The Department is responsible for the management and conservation of most federal land and natural resources.

Thanks to projects approved, more than 2,000 people would be employed during construction. In addition, the projects are expected to create several hundred permanent jobs.

All signal the Obama administration and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's efforts to promote solar power.

Monique Hanis, a spokeswoman for the Solar Energy Industries Association, said that California residents would see solar energy generated on federally owned lands in the Southwest.

Solar developers started asking the Bureau of Land Management for rights to build hundreds of solar plants on public lands five years ago. The program operated a first-come, first-served leasing system.

There were over 180 applications for around 23 million acres of public desert in the Southwest. The Interior Department identified 14 most promising solar projects. Those would generate over 6,000 megawatts.

After the approval of the 14 projects, solar energy will remain a tiny fraction of overall energy production. The Bureau of Land Management issued over 74,000 oil and gas permits over the past twenty years, but the projects approved in October are its first.

The Bureau administers America's approximately 253 million acres of lands. Most lands are located in western states. Its mission is to sustain the diversity and productivity of the public lands.

Solar Millennium, which has eligibility to secure $1.9 billion in conditional loan guarantees from the Energy Department for the Blythe Solar Power Project, has responsibility for lessening the effects of the projects.

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