Massive Solar Energy Project, OK'd

Massive Solar Energy Project on Public Land Gets Green Light

Solar photovoltaic panels generate electricity at an Exelon solar power facility on September 1, in Chicago, Illinois. Construction for what has been dubbed the largest solar power station in the world was approved by the U.S. government last week. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Oct 31, 2010 - Construction for what has been dubbed the largest solar power station in the world was approved by the U.S. government last week.

The U.S. Department of the Interior gave final clearance for the project on Oct. 26 to be built in California.

Solar Trust of America, the project’s developer, got a 30-year grant to use public land for the plant’s installation and power transmission lines from the Department of the Interior. Palo Verde Solar I, a subsidiary of Solar Millennium, LLC, and Chevron Energy Solutions will construct, own, and operate the facility.

The project will cover 7,025 acres of the Mojave Desert on land owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) near the California-Arizona border, about two miles north of Interstate 10 and eight miles west of the city of Blythe in Riverside County, Calif. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar authorized the BLM to offer the land in a right-of-way grant for the 30-year period if all proper legal and financial conditions were met. {read rest}