A siting committee of the California Energy Commission recommended approval of the 392-megawatt Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. The project, a concentrating solar power system being developed by Oakland, California-based BrightSource Energy, would supply electricity to customers of Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison.
"We look forward to a final decision from the commission [on] when we can begin constructing the Ivanpah project," BrightSource CEO John Woolard said.
With the siting committee's approval, the project will now undergo a month-long public comment period. Once that is completed, the project will go to a vote before the entire CEC.
There is, of course, no way of knowing how the commission will vote - but Ivanpah has multiple factors working in its favor. One is its use of a dry-cooling system; dry-cooling uses just 5 percent as much water as a conventional wet-cooled CSP array, and water is scarce in eastern California. The Ivanpah project would also be built on the land's natural contours, BrightSource said. Overall, it appears that the array's environmental impact would be relatively minimal.
