In the desert of eastern Riverside County, California, Desert Sunlight Holdings, LLC (Sunlight) plans to construct and operate a 550 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) energy generating project. The project includes development of a new 500- to 220-kV substation (Red Bluff Substation), where the PV generating facility will interconnect with the Southern California Edison (SCE) regional transmission system.

Many components of the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm will be located on land administered by the US Department of Interior, Bureau of Land Management (BLM):
 

• PV generating facility
• Most of the corridor for the project’s 220 kV generation interconnection transmission line (gen-tie line)
• One of two sites being considered for a new substation

Because the project will be located on BLM-administered lands, Sunlight filed a right-of-way (ROW) grant application for a permit to construct and operate the project. Issuance of the ROW grant will be based in part on an evaluation of the project’s potential environmental effects through the environmental review process under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the requirements of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976. In addition, BLM’s authorization of a ROW grant for the project will require a resource management land use plan amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan.

Under the direction of the BLM, Tetra Tech prepared the draft environmental impact statement (EIS), which describes and evaluates the impacts of constructing and operating the solar farm, gen-tie line, and substation. Primary issues of concern include biological resources, cultural resources, air quality, water resources, visual resources, and cumulative impacts.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), which has discretionary authority over the substation, also will use the EIS to provide the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) environmental review required for its approval. The EIS was prepared according to CEQA requirements, in anticipation of SCE submitting a permit–to-construct application to CPUC for the substation.

Tetra Tech provided support to BLM in preparing the Final EIS for the project.

Highlights:
 

• Managing EIS process for a fast-track renewable energy project
• Coordinating with BLM and CPUC to fulfill, in a BLM NEPA document, BLM’s NEPA requirements and CPUC’s CEQA requirements
• Working with Sunlight and SCE (project applicants) to incorporate the latest information for all aspects of the project