Union group protests Kramer Junction solar project
KRAMER JUNCTION • A union group is fighting the approval of a proposed solar facility near Kramer Junction, saying that the project needs to provide further information about water usage and the impact it will have on the environment.
The San Bernardino County Planning Commission has already approved the conditional use permit for the 350 acre facility, but members of the Local 477 International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers — which represents San Bernardino, Inyo and Mono counties — say they have concerns about the water supply for the project and environmental impact the project would have on the area. Members of the union have asked the Board of Supervisors to appeal the decision of the planning commission, according to San Bernardino County.
Members of IBEW who had protested the project would not answer questions about the project when contacted last week. The IBEW is a labor union representing electrical workers worldwide.
Other proposed solar projects in the Mojave Desert have also had problems with labor unions who request more environmental conditions be met for solar projects.
The California Energy Commission, which permits many of the solar projects throughout California, has had a suit filed against them by California Unions for Reliable Energy because of the Calico Solar project. The Calico Solar project will be located east of Newberry Springs and was purchased by K Road Power Holdings LLC in December.
Gerrit Nicholas, managing partner at K Road Power, said Tuesday that he couldn’t confirm or deny if there was a trend of labor unions protesting solar projects by bringing up environmental concerns. He said that most power stations in California normally form agreements with labor unions and that K Road has developed projects with and without labor agreements.
“From our perspective, there’s nothing wrong with labor agreements,” said Nicholas.
Paul Whitworth, senior vice president of LightSource Renewables, LLC, which is planning to build the project near Kramer Junction, said the company has not finalized the agreement with the electrical contractor, which normally decides if a project would use union labor.
“We haven’t taken the step either way,” said Whitworth.
All of the concerns that IBEW has brought to the county about the proposed Kramer Junction project are environmental.
A study required under the California Environmental Quality Act showed the environmental impact of the Kramer Junction solar project is below that required of an Environmental Impact Report and that a Mitigated Negative Declaration for the project should be sufficient, said Doug Feremenga, project planner for the San Bernardino County Land Use Services department.
IBEW also says that a full analysis of the water supply needed for the site needs to be conducted in order for the permit to be approved. Feremenga said the county did a Water Supply Assessment for the project with the Boron Community Services Department in Kern County, which will be supplying the water needed for the project. The project is expected to use about 6.49 acre feet of water per year so the solar panels can be washed. The average household uses about .5 acre feet of water per year, said Feremenga.
The facility will be located on the south side of Highway 58 in Kramer Junction, about 1.5 miles west of Highway 395. The project has an estimated cost of $140 million, said Whitworth. Lightsource Renewables is based in San Diego and currently has one other project awaiting approval in the Imperial Valley.
The Kramer Junction project will be about 40 megawatts and should produce enough electricity to power 18,000 homes. The proposed solar photovoltaic project is about a mile from an existing solar project and is also close to a SCE power substation. Whitworth said he thought the project would work well in the area because people are already used to the existing solar project in the area and there are also already disturbances in the area from existing natural gas lines.
Southern California Edison signed a power purchase agreement with LightSource Renewables last year, and the project is expected to be online by the beginning of 2014, according to the California Public Utility Commission. The CPUC approved the project last March.
Whitworth said the project had already received permission from most state agencies in order to build the project, but still needed approval from the county in order to start construction. The county planning commission approved the project in October. The Board of Supervisors is expected to vote on the issue at its meeting Feb. 8.
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(760) 256-4122 or kjonas@desertdispatch.com
