by Brianna Crandall — November 1, 2010—The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) approved on October 25 the largest solar energy project ever to be built on U.S. public lands, which will also be the world’s largest concentrating solar power facility. Upon completion, the Blythe Solar Power Project will produce up to 1,000 megawatts of solar power—reportedly enough to power 300,000 to 750,000 homes.
The installation will cover 7,025 acres of public lands eight miles west of Blythe in Riverside County, California. The developers, Palo Verde Solar I, a subsidiary of Solar Millennium, LLC, expect it to create 1,066 jobs at the peak of construction and 295 permanent jobs.
The Blythe project uses parabolic trough technology with rows of parabolic mirrors focusing sunlight on collector tubes, heating oil in the tubes. The tubes carry the oil to a boiler, which sends live steam to a turbine to produce electricity.
A new 230-kilovolt transmission line will be constructed to connect the power to the grid. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the builder is eligible to secure $1.9 billion in conditional loan guarantees from DOE for the project.
