Eminent Domain Report

According to an article in this week's New York Times, "Solar Power Plants to Rise on U.S. Land," the United States has approved two large solar power plants to be built on federal lands.  This is the first time such large plants will be built on federal land, and both are slated for California. 

The first plant is proposed by Tessera Solar and will be built on 6,360 acres in the Imperial Valley.  The second plant is proposed by Chevron Energy and will be built on 422 acres in the Lucerne Valley.  When completed, the two projects could generate enough energy to power as many as 566,000 homes.

Aside from these two projects, several others are expected to be approved this year as well; Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is quoted as saying: It’s our expectation we will see thousands of megawatts of solar energy sprouting on public lands.

The major hurdle, however, appears to be finding excess capacity on transmission lines in the desert, most of which already operate at or near capacity.  Perhaps there may be some capacity on Southern California Edison's new Tehachapi project, which we've reported on multiple times in the past.  Otherwise, energy companies may be faced with constructing new lines, like San Diego Gas & Electric's 123-mile Sunrise Powerlink project.  If additional transmission powerlines are necessary, eminent domain may well follow.