Draft environmental impact statement and draft plan amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan for the proposed Desert Sunlight Solar Farm Project

By United States. Bureau of Land Management. Palm Springs Field Office

Subjects: Solar power plants, Overhead electric lines, Environmental conditions, Management, Ecology, Electric power transmission, Public lands, Environmental aspects

Description: Desert Sunlight Holdings, LLC (Sunlight or Applicant), a wholly owned subsidiary of First Solar Development, Inc. (First Solar), proposes to construct and operate a 550-megawatt (MW), nominal capacity, alternating current (AC), solar photovoltaic (PV), energy-generating project known as the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm (DSSF). The Project consists of the PV generating facility (Solar Farm), most of the corridor for the associated 220-kilovolt (kV) generation interconnection transmission line (Gen-Tie Line), and one of two potential sites being considered for a new substation. The Project would be located on lands administered by the US Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office. The Project would develop a new 500- to 220- (500/220-) kV substation (referred to herein as the Red Bluff Substation), where the PV generating facility would interconnect with the Southern California Edison (SCE) regional transmission system.