{"id":134263,"date":"2010-01-04T04:00:33","date_gmt":"2010-01-04T09:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greenenergyreporter.com\/?p=5312"},"modified":"2010-01-04T04:00:33","modified_gmt":"2010-01-04T09:00:33","slug":"brightsource-energy-vs-the-desert-tortoise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/134263","title":{"rendered":"BrightSource Energy vs. the Desert Tortoise"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Ivanpah Solar Power Complex: moving too fast for turtle lovers?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Continuous sunshine? Check. Near existing power lines? Check. Sited on the habitat of an endangered tortoise? D\u2019oh!<\/p>\n

BrightSource Energy wants to put its 440 megawatt Ivanpah Solar Power Complex<\/a> in a 6 square mile area of the Mojave Desert owned by the federal government. Unfortunately for the company, the area is also home to threatened desert tortoise, according to this<\/a> Associated Press story.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s yet another instance of the \u201cgreen on green\u201d disputes that have already derailed another BrightSource project<\/a> in the Mojave Desert. Will they also prevent states from meeting renewable energy standards?<\/span><\/p>\n

On one hand, the Ivanpah project will power 150,000 homes using 400,000 mirrors and three solar thermal plants that will also provide about 1,000 construction jobs.<\/p>\n

On the other, the area is critical several species of flora and fauna, including the tortoise.<\/p>\n

The dispute is being watched closely by companies who have put in more than 150 applications for large-scale solar on 1.8 million acres of federal land in the Rocky Mountain West and West, according to the A.P.<\/p>\n

The Sierra Club, among others, wants BrightSource to find another site, though project opponents say they\u2019re generally supportive of renewable energy.<\/p>\n

In another unappetizing scenario, federal and state biologists proposed that the company pay approximately $25 million to catch and relocate the tortoises.<\/p>\n

BrightSource President John Woolard has protested in government filings that the company was being forced to jump through too many hoops.<\/p>\n

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“Overburdening this fledgling industry will cause it to be stillborn, ending that promise before it has truly begun.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Of course, BrightSource is not some mom and pop operation.<\/p>\n

The company has some big-name investors, including Google and VantagePoint Venture Partners along with BP and Chevron, and promising concentrated solar power technology (if only they could use it\u2026)<\/p>\n

Its Luz Power Tower 550 energy system uses thousands of mirrors, or heliostats, to reflect sunlight onto a boiler on top of a 459-foot metal tower. The steam is then piped from the boiler to a turbine and generates electricity and, finally, air cooled, to minimize water usage.<\/p>\n

As we’ve noted before, green energy is not only pro-environment, it\u2019s big business.<\/p>\n

Eventually, something\u2019s got to give in these disputes with the conservation lobby\u2026 unfortunately for the tortoise (and all the other creatures out there), green energy is moving too fast to be held up for much longer.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The Ivanpah Solar Power Complex: moving too fast for turtle lovers? Continuous sunshine? Check. Near existing power lines? Check. Sited on the habitat of an endangered tortoise? D\u2019oh! BrightSource Energy wants to put its 440 megawatt Ivanpah Solar Power Complex in a 6 square mile area of the Mojave Desert owned by the federal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":854,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/854"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134263"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134263\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}