Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for a Proposed Federal Loan Guarantee To Support Construction of the Topaz Solar Farm, San Luis Obispo County, CA

Résumé

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announces its intent to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended (NEPA), the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) NEPA regulations, and the DOE NEPA implementing procedures, to assess the potential environmental impacts of its proposed action of issuing a Federal loan guarantee to Topaz Solar Farms, LLC (Topaz) (DOE/EIS-0458). Topaz submitted an application to DOE under the Federal loan guarantee program pursuant to the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) to support construction of the Topaz Solar Farm Project located in San Luis Obispo County, California (the Project). Topaz is a limited liability company that is owned by First Solar, Inc. Topaz proposes to develop the Project on approximately 4,000 acres of land. As proposed, the approximately 550-megawatt electric generation project would include the installation of about nine million photovoltaic (PV) solar modules within approximately 437 arrays and associated electric equipment. At full capacity, the Project would generate enough electricity to power an estimated 160,000 California homes annually. Generated el