PHOENIX, AZ – Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today approved the Sonoran Solar Energy Project, which will be built on public lands near Buckeye in Maricopa County, Arizona.

The 300-megawatt project is expected to provide enough energy when operating at full capacity to power 90,000 homes.  At the peak of construction, 358 people will be employed. When operational, the plant will employ 16 full-time workers.

“We have made steady and swift progress in carrying out President Obama’s initiative for a rapid and responsible move to large-scale production of renewable energy on public lands,” Salazar said. “We have green-lighted 25 projects in the last two years, including solar, wind, and geothermal facilities that are generating good jobs, strengthening local economies and laying the foundation for a sustainable energy future.  Together, these projects will produce the clean-energy equivalent of nearly 18 coal-fired power plants, so what’s happening here is nothing short of a renewable energy revolution.”

Boulevard Associates, LLC, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy Resources, LLC, proposed the Sonoran Solar Energy Project on Bureau of Land Management (BLM) lands.  The original request was for a 375-megawatt concentrated solar plant.  Concerns about high use of water from that technology caused the BLM to consider a photovoltaic option instead in its final environmental impact statement.  The Record of Decision approving the project designates the use of photovoltaic technology.

The project, as approved, is much smaller – at 2,013 acres – than what was originally proposed (3,620 acres).  It also will use a fraction of the water originally envisioned at 33 acre/feet a year. The initial request would have required about 3,000 acre/feet a year.

The project site, in the Rainbow Valley east of State Route 85 and south of Buckeye, Arizona, contains wildlife habitat and movement corridors.  Mitigation measures are being taken to lessen potential effects to wildlife.  Those measures include relocating burrowing owls to other BLM lands and positioning of the project to allow for enhanced wildlife migration.

This is the first solar energy project approved on Federal public lands in Arizona.

A fact sheet on the project is available here.

A map of the project site is available here.

Salazar also approved the Tule Wind Project, located about 70 miles east of San Diego.  It is projected to produce 186 megawatts of electricity from 62 wind turbines.  He also announced the next steps toward developing a Mid-Atlantic Wind Energy Transmission Line.  The proposal is to build a line to collect power from wind turbines off the coasts of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia.