 | 7/29/2013 | Panoche Valley Solar Farm approval upheld |
PV2 Energy, LLC, a partner with Duke Energy Renewables, has prevailed a second time in a lawsuit challenging the San Benito County Board of Supervisors' unanimous approval of plans for a photovoltaic solar energy facility, according to L+G, LLP - Attorneys at Law.
Construction of the 399 MW Panoche Valley Solar Farm will be a major step toward meeting the state's 33-percent renewable energy mandate, according to a L+G LLP press release.
On June 25, in a published decision issued one week after oral argument in the case, a three-judge panel of the Sixth District Court of Appeal upheld the trial court's prior rejection of a lawsuit challenging the County's approval.
In a 32-page decision, the Court of Appeal found no error with the Board's approval of the Environmental Impact Report and its cancellation of Williamson Act contracts.
L+G, LLP is a low firm in Santa Cruz, San Benito, and Monterey counties.
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| 6/28/2013 | Solar project south of Silicon Valley wins a major victory in appeals court |
A proposal to build one of the world's largest solar farms south of Silicon Valley took a major step forward this week when a state appeals court rejected a lawsuit by environmental groups who have tried to stop it on the grounds it could harm endangered species.
The project, a $1.8 billion, 399-megawatt solar farm, is proposed for Panoche Valley, an arid expanse of rangeland and barbed wire 50 miles southeast of Hollister. If built, it would cover an area the size of about 3,000 football fields with photovoltaic panels and provide enough electricity for more than 100,000 homes.
"We're pleased with the court's decision," said John Pimentel, president of PV2 Energy, a San Francisco firm partnering with Duke Energy to develop the solar farm. "We've been working hard to build a project that is good for the environment and good for the community."
Pimentel said he hopes to break ground on the project by the end of 2014. However, environmentalists who oppose the project say they plan to keep fighting.
"Obviously we're disappointed," said Shani Kleinhaus, environmental advocate for the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, one of the groups that sued. "We feel the court didn't really understand the importance of the valley for endangered species in California."
In 2010, the San Benito County Board of Supervisors voted to approve the project, saying it would make the rustic county -- known more for its cattle and condors than solar panels -- a national center of clean energy.
But the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, the Sierra Club and a local group called Save Panoche Valley sued to block it, arguing that the 4 million solar panels that would be constructed across the roughly 3,000 acres west of Interstate 5 would harm disrupt the rural character of the area, and harm endangered species such as the San Joaquin kit fox, blunt-nosed leopard lizard and giant kangaroo rat.
The environmental groups lost the first round in 2011. Then a San Benito County court rejected their arguments that county supervisors who approved the project had violated the California Environmental Quality Act and the Williamson Act, a state law that preserves ranchland by blocking development in exchange for lowering ranchers' taxes. The court noted that the developers agreed to buy 23,000 adjacent acres -- an area of cattle grazing land seven times the size of the area the solar panels would take up -- and place them in permanent conservation easements as a way to offset the effects from the project.
The environmental groups appealed. But in a ruling filed Tuesday, the San Jose-based Sixth District Court of Appeal agreed with the lower court. The court's three-judge panel noted that although the environmentalists said the county should have considered other locations, such as property owned by Westlands Water District contaminated with selenium, a site that was 60 miles away in Fresno and Kings counties -- but the developers had attempted to do a deal there but couldn't come to an agreement on land prices.
In the opinion, written by Justice Eugene Primo, the court also turned down environmentalists' assertions that the adjacent lands the developers would be setting aside for endangered species wasn't good enough habitat because surveys have shown it already has giant kangaroo rats, San Joaquin kit foxes and blunt-nosed leopard lizards living on it.
Before the project can be built, it still must clear several more hurdles. Most important, company officials need to secure an agreement with Pacific Gas & Electric or another utility to buy the electricity it generates. Second, it must obtain permits from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, which may require more study of the effects on endangered species.
"This is a setback, but it is not the end of the road," said Kleinhaus of the Audubon Society.
She noted that her Audubon chapter, the Sierra Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups have written letters to utility companies urging them not to sign deals to buy the solar power because of the project's effects on endangered species.
Kleinhaus said she is not opposed to all large solar power projects, but she prefers smaller rooftop arrays on individual buildings, which have less effect on wildlife than large projects.
In recent years, California Gov. Jerry Brown and President Barack Obama have pushed for construction of large solar projects, saying they are vital to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. But some environmental groups have sued over large proposals, particularly in the Mojave Desert, where species such as bighorn sheep, desert tortoises and others live.
Several of the projects have failed because of delays, lawsuits, cost overruns and problems getting permits. Others are moving ahead.
Most notably, the $2 billion Ivanpah solar project, developed by BrightSource Energy in Oakland, is 95 percent complete. Located on the California-Nevada border 50 miles from Needles, it will supply solar power to 140,000 homes.
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| 6/14/2012 | Proposed Panoche Valley Solar Farm Heads to Appeals Court |
A proposed solar farm on nearly 5,000 rural acres in the quaint Panoche Valley near Hollister is pitting Big Solar against small farmers and wildlife conservationists, as the Weekly reported in early 2010. The legal battle shows no signs of wrapping up soon.
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors approved the 399-megawatt solar project (reduced from 420 megawatts), but environmental opponents led by the Save the Panoche Valley challenged that decision in a November 2010 lawsuit.
In August 2011, the Superior Court judge ruled in the county's favor; environmentalists (including Audubon Society and Sierra Club chapters) appealed. Now, the Appellate Court has the case.
Salinas firm L+G LLP is representing the industry respondent PV2 Energy, successor to Solargen Energy. In a brief filed today, L+G attorney Jason Retterer quotes current Department of Pesticide Regulation Director Brian Leahy describing the Panoche Valley site as "marginal" agricultural land.
The point hits at one of the plaintiffs' central claims: That the project's approval contradicts the Williamson Act, which aims to preserve agricultural land. Save the Panoche Valley contends the land is critical to local farmers, but Solargen maintains it is poor quality at best. The San Benito supes canceled the Williamson Act contracts within the project site in October 2010.
Also at issue: sensitive and endangered species on the proposed project site, and other considerations under the California Environmental Quality Act.
Retterer expects a court decision by the end of this year.
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| 12/28/2009 | Solar showdown in remote California valley |
Panoche Valley is known mostly for cattle and barbed wire, a treeless landscape in eastern San Benito County that turns green every spring but for much of the year looks like rural Nevada.
A posse of lawmen gunned down the famous Gold Rush bandit Joaquin Murrieta, an inspiration for the fictional character Zorro, near here in 1853. Nothing that exciting has happened since.
But now the remote valley 25 miles south of Hollister is finding itself at the center of a new showdown. A Silicon Valley company is proposing to build here what would be the world's largest solar farm _ 1.2 million solar panels spread across an area roughly the size of 3,500 football fields.
"This is renewable energy. It doesn't cause pollution, it doesn't use coal or foreign oil, and it emits no greenhouse gases," said Mike Peterson, CEO of Solargen Energy, the Cupertino company behind the $1.8 billion project.
But critics _ including some environmentalists _ say green energy isn't always green. In a refrain being heard increasingly across California, they contend the plan to cover this ranch land with a huge solar project would harm a unique landscape and its wildlife.
From the Bay Area to the Mojave Desert, green energy supporters are frustrated that a state that wants to lead the green revolution is facing roadblocks.
Peterson, a former vice president of Goldman Sachs, recently looked across the Panoche Valley and noted its attributes. It sits 20 miles from the nearest town. It has 90 percent of the solar intensity of the Mojave Desert. Five willing sellers, mostly longtime ranching families, have signed options to sell his company 18,000 acres. And huge transmission lines run through the site, negating the need to build the kind of costly and controversial new power lines that have stalled similar projects.
"From our standpoint, this is a perfect place," he said. "If not here, where?"
The project would produce 420 megawatts of electricity, roughly the same as a medium-sized natural gas power plant, and enough to power 315,000 homes.
The Panoche Valley solar project could come to a final vote before the San Benito County Board of Supervisors by year's end. If work started by next December, it would be finished by 2016.
"There is some opposition down there, and I can understand that," said retired school teacher Reb Monaco, the supervisor whose district includes Panoche Valley. "But when you look at areas that make sense for solar, it is probably an area that makes sense."
Solargen's Peterson said the solar panels would be on racks, 3 feet off the ground, so sheep could graze underneath, and wildlife could move under them. The 4,717-acre installation would create jobs and tax revenue for the tiny county and give it an international reputation as a solar leader, he added. Currently, the largest solar farm in the world, in Spain, is 60 megawatts, about seven times smaller than Solargen's proposal.
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