BrightSource, pushed by environmental complaints, scaled back a massive solar plant planned for the Mojave Desert to ease its impact on an endangered tortoise.
The company said Thursday it would reduce the overall “footprint” of the three-part Ivanpah project by 12 percent. Environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, had worried that 3,500 acres of mirror arrays at the solar thermal farm would reduce habitat for the turtle.
The size of the Ivanpah Valley plant will be reduced 12 percent.
That will cut the number of towers to three from seven and the number of tortoises expected to be relocated by 15 percent, according to a press release from the Oakland company. Generating capacity will fall to 392 MW from 440 MW.
The plant is one a small number of fast-track projects earmarked by the Department of the Interior and is expected to double the amount of solar thermal operating in the U.S. It would be the first solar plant built in California in about two decades.
Environmentalists want the entire plant moved a short distance away to avoid the turtle’s habitat. As many as two dozen are expected to be moved from the site.
The company hopes to start construction late this year.
