Thanks in part to a controversial fast-track approval process, a major solar thermal power project is now under way in San Bernardino County.
The Ivanpah Electric Generating System, developed, owned and operated by BrightSource Energy Co., Oakland, and NGR Energy, Princeton, N.J., could deliver 370 MW per year of solar thermal power from the floor of the Mojave Desert as soon as 2013. Alternative-energy advocates praise the project as an example for accelerating regulatory approval for other solar power plants.