Inyokern - Ridgecrest Solar Millennium Power Plant Project

A host of Solar Power proponents addressed the BLM steering committee meeting in Ridgecrest on April 24, 2008. The meeting agenda included a presentation about a proposed solar power plant to be located at Brown Road and Hwy 395 west of the South China Lake Blvd. Junction.

The plant would be located on BLM land and the BLM would benefit from rental income from the property. The plant is referred to as the Ridgecrest Solar Power Plant Project. The plants will use parabolic trough collectors similar to the plant at Kramer Junction.

Unit 1 would use evaporative cooling utilizing reclaimed water from the Ridgecrest Waste Water Treatment Plant. Water consumption estimates are approximately 1400 acre-feet/year for the 850 acre plant or roughly 1.65 acre-ft per acre.*

Wet cooling water requirements for the 675 acre unit 2 are approximately 1135 acre-feet/year or roughly 1.7 acre-ft per acre.*

There is also a dry-cooling design option for the plants

Plant 1 estimates include an average 500 construction jobs (850 at peak) over a two year period and approximately 70 permanent, full-time jobs upon completion of construction and a $3.5 million annual payroll.

Solar Millennium is building 3 plants of 50 MW each in Granada, Spain. The 'Andasol' plants will produce enough electricity for 135,000 homes and saving of 450,000 tons of CO2 per year as compared to a modern coal fired power plant.

Members of the steering committee and people in the audience voiced their concern about water use and environmental impact on the immediate and surrounding area. Concerns included fugitive dust control both during and after the completion of the project. Others mentioned concerns about the effects on local wildlife.

At this point the project is in the early planning stages and these concerns will be addressed before construction on the plant can begin.

Parabolic trough arrays, photo courtesy Department of Energy. For more about solar power plants and other forms of renewable energy follow this link.

State law requiring greenhouse gas reduction and the increasing price of fossil fuel are driving the move toward renewable energy. California utilities must provide 20% of their power from renewable sources by 2010 and 33% by 2020. AB32 requires statewide GHG emissions cap for 2020, based on 1990 emissions levels.

Guest speakers at the meeting included members from Solar Millennium, CEERT and concerned local citizens.

Representing Solar Millennium:

Josef Eichhammer, CEO

Rainer Aringhoff, President

Ray Dracker, Senior Vice President

Rachel Gold, Associate Director and Legal Counsel

Jerry Salamy, Consultant CH2M Hill

Representing CEERT

Rhonda Mills

Ryan Drobek

Members of the Inyokern Chamber of Commerce board of directors met with Nicole Tenenbaum of Solar Millennium and David Sinclair of Passantino Andersen on Nov 3, 2009. During this meeting they expressed their wish that the Inyokern Chamber of Commerce forward any concerns from local citizens pertaining to the proposed solar plant. Feel free to send your concerns to the Inyokern Chamber of Commerce. A majority of the Chamber Directors were present and they agreed that this project would be an overall benefit to the Indian Wells Valley and would help meet California's clean energy goals. A unanimous vote in favor of supporting this project was repeated at the next regularly scheduled meeting of the Inyokern Chamber of Commerce in December.

Many changes have been made to the proposed plant design. The most significant change is the decision to use dry cooling to conserve water. The current plan is to use a much smaller volume of fresh water and not use any reclaimed water. The current requirement is 165 acre-feet per year down from an estimate of 2535 acre feet in the original proposal.

Solar Millennium will be providing more information soon. For a wealth of information about this project go to the California Energy Commission webpage. For an insightful article on Renewable energy development see Fighting the backlash against clean energy by Andy Andersen of Passantino-Andersen.

There was a public scoping meeting at Inyokern Town Hall on January 6, 2010. The meeting was conducted by members of the California Energy Commission and the Bureau of Land Management. Many local citizens voiced their opinions on the subject. The concerns included loss of habitat for rare or endangered species and water use as there is a valley-wide need to conserve water. Opinions were expressed in favor of the project as a source of renewable energy and income from construction and permanent jobs in plant operation and maintenance. There was also concern about how many local people would be employed in the construction phase of the project.

Many local citizens gave testimony on the project based on their long time association with our desert and their valuable specialized knowledge on the subject. Also in attendance were representatives from Solar Millennium and Passantino-Andersen. This meeting was similar to a meeting held in Ridgecrest on January 5th.

Note from the Webmaster: Many of our local citizens gave testimony and showed their concern for our natural resources and our local economy, and some of us were left with the option to agree to disagree. There was also a very direct connection made between availability of water for new ventures and the economic vitality of our community. If you are not actively conserving water I urge you to do so, and please be considerate when you use our desert. One of our local couples reduced their water consumption by 70% when they gave up their lawn. It can be done!