Bad News for Entire Solar Industry: Giant Desert Array Halted by Judge

In October, Tessera Solar's Imperial Valley Solar Project and the Chevron Lucerne Valley Solar Project became the first utility-scale solar installations on federal lands to gain approval from the Bureau of Land Management. It was a major milestone for the slew of utility-scale solar projects vying for approval, 14 of which have been fast-tracked by the Department of the Interior.

But these projects might not get underway as soon as planners originally anticipated. Tessera Solar's $2.1 billion, 709-megawatt plant, which could power more than 140,000 homes, has been put on hold by a judge because of a request from the Quechan Indian Tribe. That could mean there are similar problems waiting for other major desert-based solar projects.

The injunction against Tessera came about because the Quechan tribe claimed the Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) didn't adequately consult it before granting permission for the solar project to be built on tribal lands. The massive plant covers a number of landmarks and burial areas for the tribe. But Tessera objected to the injunction in a statement:

During the course of the environmental impact analysis and consultations with the Quechan, other Native American tribes and interested members of the public, Tessera Solar substantially reduced the amount of land to be used by the Project by approximately 30% from its original BLM application in order to avoid potentially sensitive areas, even when not specifically required by Federal or State law. These changes included avoiding nearly all of the sensitive cultural resources located on the project site and incorporating substantial mitigation measures. 

The injunction sets a precedent for objections to all the other utility-scale solar projects gearing up for construction. For every massive desert-based solar project, there is a tribe, environmental group, or other third party with a problem. Some of these concerns are valid, to be sure, but they also have the potential to slow down supersized solar development in the U.S. And if we can learn anything from the Cape Wind offshore wind farm, which has been embroiled in controversy for nearly a decade, it is that large renewable energy projects have no shortage of detractors that can grind the construction process to a halt.

Ariel Schwartz can be reached on Twitter or by email.

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