Interior OKs 550 MW Solar Project in California
The U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) approved on August 10 the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, a 550 MW solar project to be built in the California desert east of Palm Springs.
Desert Sunlight, the largest solar photovoltaic (PV) facility approved on US public land, will generate enough energy to power over 165,000 homes. Located on approximately 4,100 acres, it will create over 630 solar jobs at peak construction. In June, DOE granted Desert Sunlight project operators a conditional commitment of a $1.88 billion loan guarantee.
The project will be operated by a subsidiary of First Solar Inc., and it will use First Solar's thin-film PV technology. An on-site substation and a 230-kilovolt generation tie line will connect the project with Southern California Edison's regional grid.
The Desert Sunlight project underwent extensive environmental review and mitigation. DOI's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) worked with First Solar, the National Park Service, and other stakeholders to significantly reduce the proposed project's total footprint from 19,000 acres to 4,144 acres.
In addition, BLM is requiring that First Solar provide funding for acquiring and enhancing more than 7,500 acres of suitable habitat for desert tortoise and other sensitive wildlife species to help mitigate the project's potential impacts. See the DOI press release and the project fact sheet .
Registration Begins for America's Home Energy Challenge
DOE and the National Science Teachers Association announced on August 16 the kick-off of registration for a nationwide student contest to help families save money by saving energy at home. America's Home Energy Education Challenge will engage elementary and middle school students to help them learn the science of energy and make wise energy choices about energy efficiency.
The Teachers Association will run the program, which encourages students, teachers, and families to learn more about energy use and efficiency and to become more aware of how homes, schools, and utilities are interconnected.
Registration begins August 16 and ends October 7, 2011. Participation will be broken into two parts: the Home Energy Challenge and the Energy Fitness Award. Each is designed to encourage students to learn about science and home energy savings, and participants can chose one or get involved with both.
The Home Energy Challenge involves students and their teachers in the third through eighth grades in an energy use comparison activity in which data from the three-month competition period are compared to the previous year's energy use for the same three months. Schools and classes will compete within 11 regions for more than $200,000 in prizes that will be distributed at the regional and national levels of the competition. The first place regional award winners will qualify for the national competition, leading to evaluation for awards. See the Progress Alert, the America's Home Energy Challenge website, and previous coverage in EERE Network News.
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EERE Network News is a weekly publication of the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE).
