Solar Farm

Los Angeles city officials are drafting a master plan for a proposed solar farm and possibly a state park on Owens Lake, drained nearly a century ago when its water was diverted to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, officials said Thursday. Representatives with the Department of Water and Power disclosed the concept when they appeared before the California State Lands Commission, which has regulatory authority over the dusty lake bed near Lone Pine. Commission members, meeting in San Diego, said they were intrigued by the idea but remain wary because of the DWP's history of using its ample political power to get its way and not cooperate with the state panel.

MANZANAR, Calif. - Over the objections of critics, Los Angeles is moving ahead with plans to build a $680-million 200-megawatt solar energy plant within view of this desolate Eastern Sierra site that was a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Southern Owens Valley Solar Project would erect 1 million photovoltaic panels on 1,200 acres it owns roughly 6 miles south of Independence and...

A kind of family feud has erupted in San Benito County's rich slice of Central California farmland over plans to build a massive solar power facility in a valley shared by 20 ranchers and organic farmers and some of the rarest creatures in the United States. Both sides of the dispute insist they are fighting for the same things ? protecting the environment and growing the local economy. County officials ? some of them farmers themselves ? believe Solargen Energy Inc.'s proposed 400-megawatt solar farm on 5,000 acres just south of San Francisco Bay will be a key part of a new future based, in part, on green technology.

Google Inc. plans to invest $80 million in six utility-scale solar facilities in California and Arizona as the tech behemoth continues to put money toward alternative energy projects. The Mountain View, Calif., company will partner with solar developer Recurrent Energy and private equity firm KKR & Co. on the projects, which are estimated to generate enough combined electricity to power more than 17,000 homes, Google said in a blog post. "You'd think the thrill might wear off this whole renewable energy investing thing after a while," Google wrote on its official blog.

Generating clean electricity that's as cheap as power from fossil fuels is the Holy Grail of green-energy companies. A new solar project powering California homes appears to be closing in on that prize. Sempra Generation, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy in San Diego, just took the wraps off a 10-megawatt solar farm in Nevada. That's small by industry standards, enough to light just 6,400 homes. But the ramifications are potentially huge.

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power announced Tuesday that it has shelved plans for a 970-acre solar farm near the Salton Sea, just as members of the City Council signaled that they were unprepared to support the project. The DWP's interim general manager, S. David Freeman, said he was troubled by the costs of the 55-megawatt project, which had been slated to go up on land purchased by the utility in 2006. Freeman made his comments moments after Councilwoman Jan Perry, who heads the council's Energy and the Environment Committee, said she planned to send the solar project back to the DWP for more work.

A San Francisco-based company said Friday that it planned to build the world's largest solar power farm near Fresno. The 80-megawatt farm will occupy as many as 640 acres and upon completion in 2011 will be 17 times the size of the largest U.S. solar farm, said Cleantech America, a privately held company. The farm will also be about seven times the size of the world's biggest plant and double the largest planned farm, both in Germany.

Frozen capital markets are putting the chill on a fast-growing California solar company, a sign that the economic downturn is being felt even in the state's thriving renewable-energy sector. Hayward-based OptiSolar Inc. confirmed Monday that it dismissed nearly half its 600-member workforce last week, cutting 185 jobs at its Hayward facility and 105 at a plant in Sacramento.

A developer who proposes to cut down hundreds of trees to make way for a massive project could expect to provoke a fair amount of environmental outrage. Not in California City. Officials in this sprawling desert community east of Bakersfield are thrilled at NextEra Energy's move to break out the chain saws. The firm, a subsidiary of utility giant FPL Group, is seeking to build a solar power plant in the area that would consume a large amount of water. The trees are tamarisks, a water-hungry invasive species, and removing them could help recharge the aquifer in this arid region.

A Native American tribe has filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an attempt to block construction of Tessera Solar's Imperial Valley solar power plant in the Sonoran Desert. The 709-megawatt solar farm, planned for more than 6,000 acres of public land near El Centro, wrapped up its approval process in October. But the Quechan tribe alleged in a complaint against the Interior Department that the installation could damage "cultural and biological resources of significance.

The agreement by investor Warren Buffett's MidAmerican Energy Holdings to buy a $2-billion photovoltaic farm in San Luis Obispo County could bring a ray of financial sunshine to the battered solar-energy industry. The scale of Buffett's foray into this sector of the renewable energy scene is considerably more modest than his $34-billion purchase of BNSF Railway, but it could provide the same kind of boost to the solar power business that the 2009 acquisition did to the railroad industry, experts said.

The Department of Energy granted final approval to three new loan guarantees for green energy projects, even as it faced continued scrutiny over $528 million in government loan assurances to solar panel maker Solyndra, which went bankrupt. The new guarantees were announced Friday after executives of Solyndra invoked their 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination before a congressional subcommittee investigating the loan guarantee process. Meanwhile, two other solar companies said they would probably not get funding under the same program, despite earlier promises from the government.

A Native American tribe has filed a lawsuit against the federal government in an attempt to block construction of Tessera Solar's Imperial Valley solar power plant in the Sonoran Desert. The 709-megawatt solar farm, planned for more than 6,000 acres of public land near El Centro, wrapped up its approval process in October. But the Quechan tribe alleged in a complaint against the Interior Department that the installation could damage "cultural and biological resources of significance.

A kind of family feud has erupted in San Benito County's rich slice of Central California farmland over plans to build a massive solar power facility in a valley shared by 20 ranchers and organic farmers and some of the rarest creatures in the United States. Both sides of the dispute insist they are fighting for the same things ? protecting the environment and growing the local economy. County officials ? some of them farmers themselves ? believe Solargen Energy Inc.'s proposed 400-megawatt solar farm on 5,000 acres just south of San Francisco Bay will be a key part of a new future based, in part, on green technology.

Land purchased decades ago in Palmdale for an intercontinental jetport that was never built might become a solar power plant under a proposal advanced Monday by the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners. The board voted to solicit the ideas of energy companies and utilities interested in constructing a solar farm on part of the 17,750 acres that Los Angeles World Airports bought in the early 1970s for more than $100 million. "This is a potentially excellent use of that land as we wait for an airport," said commission President Alan Rothenberg.

A developer who proposes to cut down hundreds of trees to make way for a massive project could expect to provoke a fair amount of environmental outrage. Not in California City. Officials in this sprawling desert community east of Bakersfield are thrilled at NextEra Energy's move to break out the chain saws. The firm, a subsidiary of utility giant FPL Group, is seeking to build a solar power plant in the area that would consume a large amount of water. The trees are tamarisks, a water-hungry invasive species, and removing them could help recharge the aquifer in this arid region.

Land purchased decades ago in Palmdale for an intercontinental jetport that was never built might become a solar power plant under a proposal advanced Monday by the Los Angeles Board of Airport Commissioners. The board voted to solicit the ideas of energy companies and utilities interested in constructing a solar farm on part of the 17,750 acres that Los Angeles World Airports bought in the early 1970s for more than $100 million. "This is a potentially excellent use of that land as we wait for an airport," said commission President Alan Rothenberg.

The Department of Energy granted final approval to three new loan guarantees for green energy projects, even as it faced continued scrutiny over $528 million in government loan assurances to solar panel maker Solyndra, which went bankrupt. The new guarantees were announced Friday after executives of Solyndra invoked their 5th Amendment privilege against self-incrimination before a congressional subcommittee investigating the loan guarantee process. Meanwhile, two other solar companies said they would probably not get funding under the same program, despite earlier promises from the government.

ESolar Inc. of Pasadena signed an agreement Friday to build a series of solar thermal power plants in China with a total capacity of 2,000 megawatts, in one of the largest renewable energy deals of its kind. Coming four months after an Arizona company, First Solar, secured a contract to build an equally large photovoltaic power plant in China, the ESolar deal signals China's emergence as a major market for renewable energy. "They're moving very fast, much faster than the state and U.S. governments are moving," said Bill Gross, ESolar's chairman and the founder of Idealab.

Something to hide? Re "Policy thins the ranks in L.A. gang units," Dec. 28 What are these officers afraid of? In most government service, strict rules govern income from other jobs and basic financial disclosure. Avoiding duty just to get around such disclosure seems akin to refusing drug and alcohol tests. It should be setting off alarms all over the Los Angeles Police Department. Have we learned nothing since Rampart? Ron Hardcastle Los Angeles The right way to site solar Re "A Mojave power failure," Editorial, Dec. 26 I was disappointed to read your editorial lauding Big Solar as the solution to the planet's problems and conservation as the enemy.