The California Energy Commission staff will hold workshops on the proposed 150-megawatt Rice Solar Energy Project. The public is invited to participate.
When: Monday, October 11, 2010, beginning at 1 p.m.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010, beginning at 10 a.m.
Where: 3rd Floor Conference Room Fish Bowl, California Energy Commission, 1516 Ninth Street, Sacramento, California on October 11
4 South Conference Room B, California Energy Commission, 1516 Ninth Street, Sacramento, California on October 12
Arrangements have been made for people unable to attend the hearing to participate by telephone and/or by computer. Click the following link: http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ricesolar/notices/2010-10-11_Notice_of_Issues_Resolution_Workshop_TN-58688.pdf
Why: The Energy Commission staff with the participation of the Western Area Power Administration and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will conduct the workshops. Other participating agencies include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Department of Fish and Game.
The workshops will provide an opportunity to discuss the staff assessment/draft environmental impact statement and provide the chance to resolve remaining issues and identify information needed to supplement the record. The prehearing conference and evidentiary hearing originally noticed for October 11 will be rescheduled to October 29.
What: The Rice Solar Energy Project is being proposed by Rice Solar Energy, LLC, a subsidiary of SolarReserve, LLC. The facility will be located 15 miles northeast of Vidal Junction and about 40 miles northwest of Blythe in eastern Riverside County. The project will be on 1,410 acres of a 2,560-acre parcel of private land located immediately south of State Route 62. A 161-kilovolt generation tie line and substation would be located partly on BLM land.
The project is a concentrating solar thermal power project with a central receiver tower, sun-tracking heliostat field and an integrated thermal storage system using molten salt as the heat transfer and storage medium. A large field of 17,500 mirrors or heliostats concentrates and focuses the sun’s energy onto a 638-foot-tall central receiver. The project uses thermal energy storage that allows solar energy to be captured throughout the day and retained in a molten salt heat transfer fluid. When electricity is generated, the hot liquid salt is routed to heat exchangers to heat water and produce steam. The steam is used to generate electricity in a conventional steam turbine cycle.
For more information, visit http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ricesolar/index.html.
SOURCE: The California Energy Commission
