Desert Sunlight Holdings has received an approval from the USA Federal Department of Interior for building the 550 MW Desert Sunlight solar farm in California. Desert Sunlight Holdings, a subsidiary of First Solar, will develop and operate the solar-photovoltaic facility in Riverside County.
The facility will use First Solar’s thin film PV technology. An on-site substation and a 230 kV generation tie line will connect the project to the Red Bluff substation, which will convert the power from 230 kV to 500 kV for transmission on Southern California Edison’s regional grid.
The Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is requiring that Desret Sunlight provide funding for acquisition and enhancement of about 7500 acres of suitable habitat for desert tortoise and other sensitive wildlife species to help mitigate the project’s potential impacts.