A 339-mega watt solar farm project to be built in Panoche Valley in southeastern San Benito County is currently on hold for most of 2014, as PV2 Energy and Duke Energy Renewables, the two companies working on the project, work to comply with state and federal environmental regulations.
The delay would also help the companies secure power purchasing agreements (PPA) – to purchase power produced by the project – from electric utilities.
“We hope to demonstrate a high degree of engagement and involvement with the government agencies that are reviewing plans like ours,” said John Pimentel, one of the cofounders of PV2 Energy.
The extensive solar project was first proposed by renewable energy company Solargen in 2009, but when the company ran into financial problems in 2011, PV2 stepped in and bought the assets for the project from Solargen. Duke Energy Renewables, part of the largest utility company in the country, formed a partnership with PV2 to oversee the project.
Pimentel said the company has been working hard with state and federal agencies to meet standards of review, including California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) standards and federal NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) standards.
One of the reasons the project is being held up is because there are three protected endangered species in the area proposed for the farm. The species include the giant kangaroo rat, the San Joaquin kit fox, and the blunt-nosed leopard lizard.
“They are all ground-dwelling species,” said Julie Vance, the environmental project manager for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Central Region.
“When a large-scale project is proposed, we have to deal with that (the Endangered Species Act requirements),” she said.
Pimentel said the company has gone “above and beyond” in meeting the standards, including adding additional biological studies and analysis of the environmental effect of the project. Vance said she hopes the project will meet the group’s timetable of the end of 2014. Working with Duke Energy and PV2 “has gone very well,” she said.
In June the Sixth District Court in San Jose ruled in favor of PV2 Energy against environmental groups who had sued the company over the proposed solar farm. The groups had originally sued to stop the project in 2011, claiming the San Benito County Board of Supervisors had not properly followed state procedure in granting environmental approval for the project in 2010, among other charges. A judge ruled against the groups, including the Sierra Club, Save Panoche Valley and the Santa Clara Audubon Society, in the original suit. The groups appealed the decision and lost that appeal.
“We are hopeful we will have one or more PPAs by the summer of 2014,” said Pimentel. He hopes the project will break ground on construction by the end of 2014.
