Worlds largest solar farm proposed

The worlds largest solar farm has been proposed for more than 10k acres of western fresno county and san benito county.

Right here in my back yard, Sweet.

Solargen Energy Inc., based in Cupertino, has submitted an application to Fresno County planners for its Panoche Ranch Solar Farm on 2,600 acres of rangeland near the Little Panoche Reservoir. Solar photovoltaic panels spread across the acreage would produce up to 250 megawatts of electricity.

A few miles down Little Panoche Road, across the San Benito County line, Solargen has proposed an even larger project in the Panoche Valley, where solar panels could occupy as much as 10,000 acres and generate up to 1,000 megawatts of power.

If - and it's a big if - the projects are built, the 1,250 megawatts of electricity generated would dwarf the output of any other solar photovoltaic installation currently operating anywhere in the world. The largest such project now is a 266-acre spread of panels near Olmedilla de Alarcon, Spain, which produces 60 megawatts of electricity in peak daylight hours.

Its a perfect place its dry and sunny most of the year, its up wind from the ag areas, less dust.
The land they are talking about is more barren than most of what most peole call deserts.


A view of the area, not much going on here

Its still only a proposal but I hope they can make it work.
We could use the electricity , at least weve gotten past the market manipulation that lead to cali's electrical crisis in 2001.
We haven had any rolling blackouts for several years now, but the grid is still pushed almost to the limit.



PGE built a 200 acre facility a few miles from this site, about 20 years ago.
It did ok with the older tech.

Our energy needs wont be soved by any "magic bullet" tech, but by embracing many technologies that are appropriate for the region and its resources.
In one of the cities north of here,what used to be a small farming community, Turlock, the local irrigation district has placed small generating turbines on it network of irrigation canal.
when the canals are running during the irrigation season, they provide a modest amount of power to the grid.
I have long thought that the states and feds massive water movement programs should start to harness that potential energy.



[edit on 22-9-2009 by punkinworks]

sounds like a good idea. I hope the "Sunshine State" aka Florida also starts to look into more affordable solar options too.

With lengthy power outages after hurricanes, I can see the need for removable solar panels on individual homes so a farm idea might not be the best answer for Florida..