The federal government hopes to ease controversy with the development of a road map that identifies 285,000 acres of public land that will make the best locations for solar energy development in six western states. Read more »
After nearly two years, a Google-backed geothermal startup, AltaRock Energy, is finally getting the permit for a demonstration project in Oregon to show its novel technology does work. Read more »
Three environmental group on Monday filed suit against the federal government over a proposed solar farm in California, contending that the government has failed in its duty to ensure the project would not pose a significant harm to wildlife. Read more »
Yet another massive solar thermal farm in the California desert is ditching the thermal part and opting for solar panels. Solar Trust, which has been developing a 1 GW solar farm in California, announced it will use panels instead and give up $2.1B of federal help. Read more »
On Friday BrightSource Energy received approval from the Bureau of Land Management to restart the part of its Ivanpah Solar power plant project that was suspended in April of this year in order to reassess the project’s impact on desert tortoises. Read more »
Here comes another lawsuit about a giant solar farm in California. Western Watershed Project has filed a lawsuit against the federal government over its approval of BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah project in the Mojave Desert. Read more »
Solar thermal player BrightSource has raised another $26 million of its previously raised round, and reportedly has moved closer to an IPO by hiring Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Will the solar thermal leader hit the public markets in 2011? Read more »
The federal Bureau of Land Management will be stamping its final approval on a series of giant solar energy projects in California over the next two months, marking 2010 as the year when the state allows its desert to bloom with mirrors to produce electricity. Read more »
