After buying 17,750 acres in Palmdale for an intercontinental jetport that has not gotten off the ground, Los Angeles airport officials say they might finally have a use for much of the property: a solar power facility capable of generating up to 100 megawatts of clean energy.
If approved, the project would help Los Angeles comply with a major portion of Measure B, a local proposition on the March 3 ballot that would require the city to generate 400 megawatts of electricity from solar installations by 2014.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is eyeing about 4,000 largely undeveloped acres of Palmdale airport property, a site that could achieve 25% of the goal of Measure B at a single location, assuming city voters pass it. The balance of the requirement would probably come from smaller locations across the city, including rooftops and parking lots.
DWP general manager H. David Nahai said Palmdale is not crucial to fulfilling the terms of Measure B. Still, if Los Angeles could place a solar farm on the high desert property, "it would be like having the city's own power plant," he said.
"Who would say no to that?" Nahai said.
For starters, how about Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich? He has been a vocal critic of Los Angeles' failure to establish permanent air service in Palmdale as part of a larger strategy to spread air traffic more evenly across the region.
The DWP and Los Angeles World Airports, which owns the property, would have to curry favor with Antonovich, whose district includes Palmdale Regional Airport. Although Antonovich said he has welcomed solar facilities into his district, he also noted that property owners were required to sell their land decades ago specifically to make way for the airport.
"The city of Los Angeles took this land by eminent domain for the express purpose of establishing and operating a regional airport vital to our county's ability to provide air transportation service now and in the future," Antonovich said in a prepared statement. "The city should keep its promise to the people of the Antelope Valley or give the land back to its rightful owners."
Leasing or selling airport land for a purpose other than aviation would require approvals from the Federal Aviation Administration. Federal regulations require that land purchased with airport revenue be used for aeronautical purposes.
