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Released February 27, 2014 | SUGAR LAND
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Written by John Egan for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Plans by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) (Los Angeles, California) to build a 200-megawatt (MW) photovoltaic project in the Southern Owens Valley may be in trouble. The project is opposed by environmental organizations, the National Park Service, preservation groups, and activists who don't want a large solar farm built near the site of a World War II internment camp. Also, the photovoltaic (PV) project is being developed as the LADWP is trying to recover its footing after a string of high-profile controversies.
The LADWP recently wrapped up a public comment period on its proposed Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch Project. The utility wants to build the project on 1,200 acres that it owns in Inyo County, on the east side of the Sierra Mountains. The project has a total investment value (TIV) of about $950 million. If the project obtains the requisite approvals, construction could kick off in late 2016, with a scheduled in-service date of late 2018.
As part of its public outreach program, the LADWP held three town hall meetings and received about 300 comments on its proposal, spokeswoman Carol Tucker told Industrial Info: "Nothing has been approved yet. The project is still under development, and there is quite a bit of work yet to do. Staff is reviewing material gathered in the public comment period." The project is scheduled to go before the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners later this year. Members of that panel are appointed by the Los Angeles mayor and approved by the Los Angeles City Council.
Opposition to the project centers on its potential to obscure views from the Manzanar National Historic Site, which was created by Congress in 1992 to commemorate the area where thousands of Japanese Americans were forcibly housed after being taken from U.S. cities and towns during World War II. Manzanar is one of 10 sites commemorating the forced internment of Japanese-Americans and resident Japanese aliens during World War II.
The Manzanar National Historic Site, which is managed by the National Park Service (Washington, D.C.), doesn't want the photovoltaic facility built where LADWP proposes to build it. "The National Park Service favors solar power and renewable energy in general," said Colin Smith, acting superintendent of Manzanar National Historic Site, in an interview. "But we have to balance numerous considerations. We don't think this site is the best one for this project." Smith said the park service favors building the PV project on two alternative sites located south of the current proposed site.
In late 2013, Les Inafuku, then-superintendent of the Manzanar National Historic Site, told The Los Angeles Times: "For the sake of our visitors' experiences and the memories of our former internees, we must advocate for the area to remain undeveloped." He has since retired from the park service.
Smith told Industrial Info he shares that view. The site draws about 85,000 visitors per year, and Smith said preserving the sense of desolation is critical to the visitors' experience at Manzanar: "An essential part of the Manzanar experience is a sense you're in the middle of nowhere, at the end of the Earth. Building a two-square-mile PV facility less than four miles away from Manzanar would significantly detract from that experience. We are trying to preserve the experience of our visitors."
Bruce Embrey, co-chair of the Manzanar Committee, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving the site, also opposes building the facility where LADWP wants to build it. He told the Times: "There is no agency that regulates vistas and views. We have moral authority, an appeal to the city's social conscience. We are urging the LADWP to consider alternative sites for its solar farm, perhaps on structures in downtown Los Angeles."
In its draft environmental impact report, the LADWP said the project's impact on the views "will be minimized by several factors, including the distance ... from Manzanar, [its] low profile and orientation of the solar panels to blend with the Valley floor."
Randy Howard, the LADWP's director of power systems planning and development, told the Times that critics' fears are unfounded: "Visual simulations and studies say the solar field could be seen from Manzanar. However, it wouldn't jump out at you."
Last month, in an editorial supporting construction of the PV plant near the Manzanar site, the Times wrote: "Just as there is a moral and legal commitment to preserve this part of our past, it also is imperative for California to develop sources of sustainable energy that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. ... A solar array, though near the Manzanar internment camp, would not distract visually from or damage the sense of desolation that is part and parcel of the historic site."
In a "fact check" statement recently posted to its website, the LADWP said: "Recent media reports have left an impression that the proposed Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch Project, which has stirred controversy because of the potential location about four miles east of the Manzanar National Historic Site, has been approved by LADWP. That is not the case."
The LADWP said it undertook an "exhaustive environmental review to evaluate the proposed project location." It said the proposed project site was selected because of its high solar resource value, no need for new transmission projects, the availability of a large, contiguous area, low-impact on sensitive biological resources and avoidance of high-sensitivity visual areas, among other factors.
The Los Angeles utility is developing the project as part of its plan to comply with mandates that 33% of its electricity must come from renewable resources by 2020, and another mandate to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
The last thing the LADWP needs now is another bruising, high-profile fight, which is why the solar project could get moved, delayed or put on hold. The utility has been trying to recover from a raft of public controversies, including malfunctioning of a newly installed $162 million customer billing system; fractious relations with the mayor and City Council over various matters; and resistance to investigations into how non-profit organizations controlled by the LADWP's unions spent about $40 million of customer funds since 2000. These controversies contributed to the ouster of the LADWP's general manager last month and the installation of a new general manager.
The Los Angeles utility, which serves more than 1.4 million customers in the Greater Los Angeles area, also is looking at raising electric rates to recover the costs of building new power plants. As a supplier of water to the L.A. area, the utility also is facing higher costs to procure, treat and deliver water to its customers. The LADWP also must invest in water replenishment in the Owens Valley, not far from the site of its planned PV farm.
Given the opposition to the project's current location, recent controversies swirling around the LADWP, and fractious relations between the utility and its overseers, how much political capital does the utility want to expend on an expensive, controversial project like the Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch Project?
View Plant Profile - 3046726
View Project Report - 300057487
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
The LADWP recently wrapped up a public comment period on its proposed Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch Project. The utility wants to build the project on 1,200 acres that it owns in Inyo County, on the east side of the Sierra Mountains. The project has a total investment value (TIV) of about $950 million. If the project obtains the requisite approvals, construction could kick off in late 2016, with a scheduled in-service date of late 2018.
As part of its public outreach program, the LADWP held three town hall meetings and received about 300 comments on its proposal, spokeswoman Carol Tucker told Industrial Info: "Nothing has been approved yet. The project is still under development, and there is quite a bit of work yet to do. Staff is reviewing material gathered in the public comment period." The project is scheduled to go before the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners later this year. Members of that panel are appointed by the Los Angeles mayor and approved by the Los Angeles City Council.
Opposition to the project centers on its potential to obscure views from the Manzanar National Historic Site, which was created by Congress in 1992 to commemorate the area where thousands of Japanese Americans were forcibly housed after being taken from U.S. cities and towns during World War II. Manzanar is one of 10 sites commemorating the forced internment of Japanese-Americans and resident Japanese aliens during World War II.
The Manzanar National Historic Site, which is managed by the National Park Service (Washington, D.C.), doesn't want the photovoltaic facility built where LADWP proposes to build it. "The National Park Service favors solar power and renewable energy in general," said Colin Smith, acting superintendent of Manzanar National Historic Site, in an interview. "But we have to balance numerous considerations. We don't think this site is the best one for this project." Smith said the park service favors building the PV project on two alternative sites located south of the current proposed site.
In late 2013, Les Inafuku, then-superintendent of the Manzanar National Historic Site, told The Los Angeles Times: "For the sake of our visitors' experiences and the memories of our former internees, we must advocate for the area to remain undeveloped." He has since retired from the park service.
Smith told Industrial Info he shares that view. The site draws about 85,000 visitors per year, and Smith said preserving the sense of desolation is critical to the visitors' experience at Manzanar: "An essential part of the Manzanar experience is a sense you're in the middle of nowhere, at the end of the Earth. Building a two-square-mile PV facility less than four miles away from Manzanar would significantly detract from that experience. We are trying to preserve the experience of our visitors."
Bruce Embrey, co-chair of the Manzanar Committee, a nonprofit group dedicated to preserving the site, also opposes building the facility where LADWP wants to build it. He told the Times: "There is no agency that regulates vistas and views. We have moral authority, an appeal to the city's social conscience. We are urging the LADWP to consider alternative sites for its solar farm, perhaps on structures in downtown Los Angeles."
In its draft environmental impact report, the LADWP said the project's impact on the views "will be minimized by several factors, including the distance ... from Manzanar, [its] low profile and orientation of the solar panels to blend with the Valley floor."
Randy Howard, the LADWP's director of power systems planning and development, told the Times that critics' fears are unfounded: "Visual simulations and studies say the solar field could be seen from Manzanar. However, it wouldn't jump out at you."
Last month, in an editorial supporting construction of the PV plant near the Manzanar site, the Times wrote: "Just as there is a moral and legal commitment to preserve this part of our past, it also is imperative for California to develop sources of sustainable energy that reduce our reliance on fossil fuels. ... A solar array, though near the Manzanar internment camp, would not distract visually from or damage the sense of desolation that is part and parcel of the historic site."
In a "fact check" statement recently posted to its website, the LADWP said: "Recent media reports have left an impression that the proposed Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch Project, which has stirred controversy because of the potential location about four miles east of the Manzanar National Historic Site, has been approved by LADWP. That is not the case."
The LADWP said it undertook an "exhaustive environmental review to evaluate the proposed project location." It said the proposed project site was selected because of its high solar resource value, no need for new transmission projects, the availability of a large, contiguous area, low-impact on sensitive biological resources and avoidance of high-sensitivity visual areas, among other factors.
The Los Angeles utility is developing the project as part of its plan to comply with mandates that 33% of its electricity must come from renewable resources by 2020, and another mandate to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.
The last thing the LADWP needs now is another bruising, high-profile fight, which is why the solar project could get moved, delayed or put on hold. The utility has been trying to recover from a raft of public controversies, including malfunctioning of a newly installed $162 million customer billing system; fractious relations with the mayor and City Council over various matters; and resistance to investigations into how non-profit organizations controlled by the LADWP's unions spent about $40 million of customer funds since 2000. These controversies contributed to the ouster of the LADWP's general manager last month and the installation of a new general manager.
The Los Angeles utility, which serves more than 1.4 million customers in the Greater Los Angeles area, also is looking at raising electric rates to recover the costs of building new power plants. As a supplier of water to the L.A. area, the utility also is facing higher costs to procure, treat and deliver water to its customers. The LADWP also must invest in water replenishment in the Owens Valley, not far from the site of its planned PV farm.
Given the opposition to the project's current location, recent controversies swirling around the LADWP, and fractious relations between the utility and its overseers, how much political capital does the utility want to expend on an expensive, controversial project like the Southern Owens Valley Solar Ranch Project?
View Plant Profile - 3046726
View Project Report - 300057487
Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, three offices in North America and nine international offices, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.
