Comments on: Hurdles for Solar Thermal Plants in Cali: Cute Animals, Red Tape

By: BrightSource Wins $1.37B Federal Loan Guarantee Commitment

BrightSource Wins $1.37B Federal Loan Guarantee Commitment — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 23:52:31 +0000

[...] up the California state permitting and citing process for Ivanpah, we’re not sure what will. Woolard has famously said that Ivanpah is in the second year of what was supposed to be a 6-month process due to regulations (and more [...]

By: Brad Bergman

Brad Bergman — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:45:04 +0000

No. The system has been rigged over the years to enable these interest groups to block fossil plants. The problem is that same system now incentivizes the same groups to block renewable plants. Unless you carve out some exception for renewable plants - which I don't see happening - the same thing is going to continue to happen. These groups are so focused on their narrow slice of the pie, that they're unwilling to sacrifice their interests for the greater good.

Additionally, there's no way to get it done through the legislative process. Republicans, who would normally be anti-regulation, will sit on their hands because it's "green" energy. Democrats are too beholden to those traditional interest groups to block them legislatively.

Large, determined foreign companies (think Abengoa or Siemens) will fight their way through the red tape and get some plants built eventually. All of these small US startups are going to wash out of the process unless they can sell their technology to a big player.

By: Katie Fehrenbacher

Katie Fehrenbacher — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:08:58 +0000

Do either of you see any chance of change on the horizon for the California environment?

By: Buy Used: Green Tip | New Mexico Solar Installation

Buy Used: Green Tip | New Mexico Solar Installation — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:46:51 +0000

[...] Hurdles for Solar Thermal Plants in Cali: Cute Animals, Red Tape [...]

By: Juliette Anthony

Juliette Anthony — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 02:59:10 +0000

No solar thermal plant that uses water for cooling and is planned for the Southern California desert stands a good chance of getting permitted in the current environment. At last week's Photon International Conference in San Francisco, many solar developers were turning instead to smaller PV systems located on degraded land in order to avoid the CEQA process, the environmental obstacles, and the long permitting process, which eats up profits. Some large solar thermal plants are considering dry cooling, but that does not eliminate the endangered species habitat impacts. Solar PV is adaptable in size, typed of installation, and this year in particular because of the collapse of the Spanish market, falls into the lowest cost yet for panels. The ease of deployment has become a big issue in the solar world. My bets are on the flexibility of PV panel deployment in a contentious permitting environment.

By: Brad Bergman

Brad Bergman — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:28:22 +0000

You want to hear something really crazy? San Bernardino county just filed to participate in the permitting process for Ivanpah, claiming that the offsets Brightsource would be purchasing to preserve habitat would curtail the amount of land that would otherwise be available for recreation or development that could have contributed to the tax base. I don't know how anybody ever expects to get a plant built in this environment.