If zoning for this project is approved by county officials next week, a 640-acre solar farm could be built in the Golden Valley area. But the project may already be in jeopardy, pending a proposal to shut down all renewable energy projects in Mojave County next year.
The proposed solar project, led by Texas-based ReNRG Partners, could be located in the Oatman Highway area. But for the project to work, the county board would need to vote in favor of zoning the land as an energy and solar overlay zone. The Mojave County Planning and Zoning Commission voted in favor of the project earlier this year, 5-3, and the county board will make a final decision at its next commission meeting in Kingman on Monday. is.
But as ReNRG prepares to take its first steps on the project, Mojave County Commissioner Travis Lingenfelter has announced a one-year moratorium on utility-scale renewable energy projects in Mojave County. looking for possibilities. Lingenfelter’s proposals would apply not only to solar projects such as those planned in Golden Valley, but also to wind farms and hydrogen-based energy projects.
A decade ago, San Bernardino County officials approved a similar proposal, imposing a 45-day moratorium on utility-scale solar energy projects. At the time, San Bernardino County officials were looking to address potential land-use compatibility issues posed by renewable energy projects and consider whether the county’s development code and general plan needed to be amended. . Similar moratoriums have been approved across the United States in recent years due to the environmental impacts such developments can have on local communities.
Mr. Ringenfelter’s proposal said this week that “private land ownership in Mojave County is only 10 percent.” “Due to the difficulty in understanding the complexities of the impacts of utility-scale renewable energy projects and the lack of available information and real-world analysis of the long-term impacts on Mojave County and our way of life, the proposal The purpose of the current suspension is to allow sufficient time for adequate investigation, analysis and research and to make informed decisions.”
The moratorium applies only to business-scale renewable energy projects and does not apply to residential or commercial owners who want to install renewable energy projects on their premises. Lingenfelter said the moratorium could be extended or terminated if necessary.
Mojave County has a surface area of over 13,461 square miles. However, about 70% of all land in the county is managed by state and federal governments. In terms of surface area, Mojave County is her fifth-largest county in the United States, but the county’s direct jurisdiction, including the county’s own municipality, is only about 4,039 square miles.
Lingenfelter’s proposal follows a June resolution by the Mojave County Oversight Board against three proposed solar projects on federal land in Mojave County. Together, these projects include more than 12,000 acres of his land in the Mojave Valley, Mineral Park and White Hills region. The county’s objections addressed the potential environmental impact of such projects and the impact of such projects on local ranchers.
Additional research will give the agency an opportunity to examine the impact of such projects on the human and natural environment within Mojave County, Lingenfelter said, giving the agency a better chance of deciding which projects to approve. New zoning regulations may be possible to get ideas, he said.
The Mojave County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to vote on whether to approve Lingenfelter’s proposal at its next regular meeting in Kingman on Monday.
