^Route of proposed transmission line for the Eagle Crest Energy project. The image is of the old Kaiser truck road that leads to Big Wash. Coxcomb Mountains lie in background. BLM must decide whether to approve this transmission line Right-of-Way or not.
Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Proposed Eagle Mountain Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Project
January 31, 2011 - The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission released its environmental review of this project on December 23, 2010. Comments are due by February 23, 2011.
FERC is responsible for licensing of Eagle Crest Energy’s proposed 1,300-megawatt Eagle Mountain Pumped Storage Hydroelectric Project. The Project would be located on the site of the inactive Eagle Mountain mine, in Riverside County, California, near the town of Desert Center.
The project would occupy nearly 1,059 acres of federal land managed by BLM and an additional 1,162 acres of private lands. In its license application, Eagle Crest proposed measures for aquifer and seepage monitoring (and any necessary remediation for water quality and quantity), construction constraints for air quality control, limiting light pollution during project operation, and measures to protect terrestrial resources such as the federally listed desert tortoise, and the development and/or implementation of management plans that cover a range of resources, including: (a) water quality and quantity; (b) wildlife habitat enhancement; (c) vegetation; (d) wildlife; (e) recreation; (f) aesthetics; and (g) cultural resources. Commission staff evaluated Eagle Crest’s proposal, and recommendations made by state and federal agencies, in the draft EIS.
See http://www.ferc.gov/industries/hydropower/enviro/eis/2010/12-23-10.asp
^The old Kaisar Mine on Eagle Mountain.
Draft Environmental Impact Report of Eagle Crest Energy for the Eagle Mountain Hydroelectric Project
July 28, 2010 - Desert Center, Riverside County, California - Below, please find a link to the Draft Environmental Impact Report of Eagle Crest Energy for the Eagle Mountain Hydroelectric Project, filed today with the Commission in Project No. 13123. To download the full 147MB filing, please click here: (https://geiconsultants.sharefile.com/d/s36516118aa74aeea), and here: (https://geiconsultants.sharefile.com/?cmd=d&id=8e035ba4e5ce4f06).
This ill-conceived project would supposedly pump water uphill into artifical reservoirs using the many renewable energy projects slated for Chuckwalla Valley, then open pipes at night to let the water flow downhill through turbines, generating electricity for cities when the sun does not shine. But we are skeptical.
Will First Solar Desert Sunlight, Solar Millennium Palen and Blythe, and Genesis Solar Energy Project actually pump any water uphill "off peak"? -- No.
Will the water actually be pumped up by hooking into Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona, which lies at the far end of the proposed Palo Verde-Devers transmission line hooking into the Eagle Mountain project? -- We suspect Yes.
So they are just pretending to use renewables? -- Yes.
If the Solar Millennium Ridgecrest plant will cost $1 billion, this pumped storage scheme must be $5 billion. Pumped Storage is a gimmick using questionable economics. When electricity is cheap, water is pumped up a hill. When electricity is not cheap, water flows down the hill to generate electricity. The profits are made on the difference in electrical prices. The efficiency is very poor since essentially there are two generating plants selling the production of one and they will never recover all the energy to pump water up a hill.
Comment Deadline October 7, 2010
Send comments to:
Mr. Paul Murphy
Hearings and Special Projects
State Water Resources Control Board
1001 I Street, 14th Floor
Sacramento CA 95814
January 11, 2010 - The Department of Energy and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission announced a proposal for the closed Eagle Mountain mine to be used as a giant "water battery" apparently for the planned solar farms that are also proposed for Chuckwalla Valley.
Eagle Crest Energy Company proposed a hydroelectric application called the Eagle Mountain Pumped Storage Project.
It would be located in two depleted mining pits in the Eagle Mountain Mine in Riverside County, California, near the Town of Desert Center, California, and would occupy Bureau of Land Management and private lands owned by Kaiser Eagle Mountain, LLC.
The project would consist of a 191-acre upper reservoir impounded by two diversion dams with a total storage capacity of 20,000 acre-feet; and a 163-acre lower reservoir with a total storagecapacity of 21,900 acre-feet. A spillway channel about 4,000 feet long and various complex tunnels and underground pump turbines would transfer up to 1,300 megawatts of electricity as water is pumped into the upper resevoir and allowed to flow down. The idea apparently would be to store the electricity produced by the numerous photovoltaic and/or solar thermal projects proposed nearby, so that it could be slowly released during hours when the sun does not shine.
A new 13.5-mile-long, 500-kilovolt transmission line would have to be built to connecting to a new substation. Many miles of permanent construction and access roads; staging, storage, and administration areas near the switchyard; and other facilites would also be built. The average annual generation is estimated to be 22.2 gigawatt-hours.
A copy of the application is available for review at the Commission in the Public Reference Room or may be viewed on the Commission's Web site at http://www.ferc.gov using the eLibrary' link. Enter the docket number excluding the last three digits in the
docket number field to access the document. [Project No. 13123-002]
This is the same mine that was slated to be the largest trash dump for Los Angeles, a project that was recently turned down by the courts. But developers are always trying to find new ways to destroy this mountain partly in Joshua Tree National Park.
We ask, where are they going to get all this water in the desert?
^Phacelia blooming with the Eagle Mountain area in the background.
