BLM seeks comments on 500-MW solar power project now owned by EDF RE

The US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is seeking public comment on plans for a 500-MW solar project in California that was acquired by EDF Renewable Energy (EDF RE) from Abengoa SA (BME:ABG) at the end of 2015.

An application for the Palen project was initially submitted some 10 years ago by a subsidiary of Solar Millenium which went bankrupt in 2012. The project was subsequently acquired by BrightSource Energy Inc, which later partnered with Abengoa. The Spanish group bought BrightSourc's stake in 2014.

EDF RE, a subsidiary of the renewables arm of French power group EDF (EPA:EDF), wants to revise the pending right‐of‐way application to a solar photovoltaic (PV) panel facility from the previously proposed solar power tower project.

The BLM on Friday opened a 45-day public comment period on the draft plans. The agency published a notice in the Federal Register that the draft supplemental environmental impact statement and environmental impact report and draft land use plan amendment for the project are available.

The project is located on public lands in eastern Riverside County and would feed power into Southern California Edison's existing Red Bluff Substation. Once a notice to proceed has been secured, expected at some point in 2018, the solar plant would be built in about 30 months and might start operations in phases between 2018 and 2021.

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