Solar thermal firm BrightSource Energy has dropped plans for a 500-megawatts (MW) power plant on federal lands in the Mojave Desert that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) wants to transform into a national monument.
BrightSource had submitted a proposal to the Bureau of Land Management to develop the power plant on 5,130 acres known as the Broadwell Dry Lake.
Environmentalists opposed building on the land, which had been donated to and purchased by the Department of the Interior for conservation.
"I commend BrightSource Energy for this action," Feinstein said in a statement. "It’s clear that conservation and renewable energy development are not mutually exclusive goals — there is room enough in the California desert for both."
Read the Los Angeles Times coverage at the link below.
Earlier this month, Brightsource announced the selection of global engineering and construction firm Bechtel, as the engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor for a separate solar thermal development in California, called the Ivanpah Solar Electricity Generating System.
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