Wikimedia Commons/egcrosser
Wikimedia Commons/egcrosser
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) invited the public Feb. 19 to engage in a pre-application workshop regarding the Orion Solar facility.
They discussed the proposed BLM-managed public lands, which are located south of Interstate 10 and 30 miles east of Quartzsite.
The BLM is considering a proposal from 174 Power Global, Corp to construct and operate a utility-scale photovoltaic solar facility. The facility will be built on 4,654 acres of public land in La Paz County.
The project will produce about 800 megawatts of electricity for homes and businesses. The electricity project will be built in two or more phases and a four-mile 500-kilovolt communication line will connect the solar buildings to the electrical system already being used. The connection will be made using an adjoining substation that will be built just for the connection.
The design would be within a deviated area. These areas are BLM-administered public lands that are outside of a BLM solar energy zone. They will be identified in BLM’s Western Solar Plans.
The deviated areas are conceivably available for BLM's utility-scale solar energy development. However, the BLM administration must consider many other projects proposed in the same deviated areas and these proposals must be in accordance with the established BLM modification process.
The BLM administration held the public meeting with a presentation followed by a public workshop. Their main goal was to inform the public about the project details and to answer any questions the public had about the details. They also informed the attendees of the modification process.
BLM encourages residents to contact them if there are any concerns or questions. For more information, contact Jason O'Neal by fax at
202-208-3049 or by phone at 202-208-3269. You can also reach Jason by email at blm_law_enforcement@blm.gov.
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