The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has issued final approval for the construction of a 500MW solar project in the desert of southeastern California.
The project will be built by Oberon Solar, a subsidiary of Intersect Power, and will be co-located with a 500MW battery energy storage system.
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Once completed by 2023, the Oberon solar project will occupy about 2,600 acres of BLM-managed land near Desert Center in eastern Riverside County.
This is the third project to receive construction approval under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) – which identifies areas in the southeastern California desert-land that are suitable for utility-scale renewables projects – that covers an area of 10.8 million acres of public lands.
Karen Mouritsen, California state director at BLM, said: “The BLM is committed to responsible renewable energy development that balances conservation and utilization of public land.”
The BLM is currently processing 64 utility-scale renewable projects proposed on public lands in the western side of the US, with a potential installed capacity of 41GW.
