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With solar panels extending deep into the desert behind them, dozens of energy and government officials marked California’s commitment to clean energy with the commissioning of two neighboring solar plants near Blythe on Thursday, Nov. 10.

The McCoy and Blythe projects, owned and operated by subsidiaries of Florida-based NextEra Energy Resources, will collectively produce a peak capacity of 485 megawatts and make enough carbon-free electricity for 181,000 homes, according to company estimates.

And this $1.2 billion investment is just half of it, explained Scott Busa, the company’s executive director of development, speaking above the blare of the Rolling Stones’ “Start Me Up.”

Later phases of the projects will double the current production. The completed projects will cover more than 12 square miles of federal lands about 10 miles west of Blythe in eastern Riverside County.

It’s the nation’s largest solar development zone on federal land.

Riverside County Supervisor John Benoit said the projects employed hundreds of construction workers since building began in 2014.

“We are doing right for our environment, our kids, and our earth,” said Benoit, speaking to about 70 people.

Tribal Secretary Amanda Barrera of the Colorado River Indian Tribes, had mixed feelings.

She commended NextEra for working with tribal monitors, who were on hand to care for artifacts that were unearthed during the construction.

But Barrera also noted that the projects were built on sacred ancestral lands that nourished the Mohave and Chemehuevi peoples.

“We can no longer roam freely through here for our medicine,” she said, her voice cracking. ... “The animals that roamed through here can no longer roam through here.”

About four million photovoltaic panels now cover the landscape. Computer-controlled trackers adjust the panels’ angles so that they get maximum exposure to the sun.

McCoy and Blythe are the fourth and fifth large-scale solar plants to go into operation on public land in the deserts of Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

They follow the Ivanpah and Genesis solar projects, which started up in 2014, and the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm, which began generating power in early 2015.

Ivanpah, off I-15 in northeastern San Bernardino County, uses mirrors to focus heat on three tall towers that are equipped with boilers to make electricity.

The Genesis plant, about 25 miles west of Blythe, uses nearly 620,000 curved mirrors to capture the sun’s heat to make steam that turns turbines to create electricity.

Like McCoy and Blythe, Desert Sunlight is uses photovoltaic panels to turn sunlight directly into electricity. That plant is north of Desert Center, near Joshua Tree National Park.

Source: pe.com