On Monday, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced that the Bureau of Land Management has given final approval to a new solar energy project on public lands in the California desert. The $550 million Crimson Solar Project will be sited on 2,000 acres of federal land west of Blythe, California — between Riverside and Imperial Counties — and will reportedly be capable of powering nearly 90,000 homes. The project will include a battery storage system and will be sited on land designated for renewable energy development by the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, an agreement formulated between California and the Obama Administration that set aside areas for wind and solar projects.
