The Ivanpah solar project is set to begin construction in the Mojave Desert in 2010—but the endangered Desert Tortoise is stalling construction.
Bright Source Energy said its 400 MW project is the largest solar project in the state of California. But the company must address issues, like the relocation of roughly 26 Desert Tortoises that currently reside on the proposed land, before they can get the go ahead from the Bureau of Land Management and the California Energy Commission.
Desert tortoises reside in the desert lands of southern Nevada, Arizona and specifically in California. They usually live for 50 to 80 years and are a huge concern for Bright Source’s 6-square-mile facility.
Listen to what Keely Wachs, spokesman for Bright Source, said about the project:
Southern California Edison has contracts with Bright Source to buy energy from the Ivanpah project and use its own power lines to transport it. And the project’s success is crucial to the utlility meeting its state-mandated Renewable Portfolio Standard of 20 percent of energy from renewable sources by 2010.
And the Tortoises may also jeopardize Bright Source’s chance to begin building in 2010 and allow them to take advantage of the stimulus money allotted for renewable energy projects. The window of opportunity to take advantage of this money will close come 2011.
“We want to take advantage of as many stimulus dollars as there are available to these packages, and there is a very important imperative and that is that the projects begin construction in 2010, to have that money available.” Jeff Harris, an attorney for Bright Source, said to the CEC at a hearing last month.
Wachs talks about the project’s long term goals and time constraints:
Currently the BLM is reviewing Bright Source’s revised relocation plan before they can complete an environmental impact statement—a step that needs to be completed before construction begins. However Tom Hurshman, the BLM project manager for Ivanpah, said the company has not yet handed over a detailed plan of how to move the Tortoises.
“They have not given us all the information to complete our analysis,” Hurshman said. Once they have a relocation plan that complies with the California Endangered Species Act, he said the, “BLM needs that information to do biological assessment, that will go to wildlife service.”
The last plan Bright Source submitted did not provide enough detail about the site the Tortoises would be moved to, including the timing of their move, monitoring and reporting on their health, and a plan for fencing in the new habitat to protect the animals.
“They don’t think we need all this information, and we think we do,” Hurshman said about the project’s impact on the environment and wildlife.
And the clock is ticking to have these environmental reports go through the process of review to keep the project on track and qualify for federal funds.
“You are really going to need a decision at the very end of 2009, or January of 2010 to be able to take advantage of the stimulus monies so that you can go out and do the tortoise clearing, put up the fences so that those animals will remain safe during the construction period, and move forward with your other construction activities,” Harris said.
And even a small relocation of tortoises is not so simple, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services, who assisted with a relocation project of roughly 600 tortoises last fall at U.S. Army base Fort Irwin.
“We cant just pick them up and move them 50 feet over,” said Roy Averill Murray of U.S. FWS referring to the Tortoises. “Even with smaller scale operations—none of them are without risk.”