Genesis Solar Energy Project

The Genesis Solar Energy Project (GSEP) is located on approximately 1,800 acres at 11995 Wiley’s Well Road, about 25 miles west of the city of Blythe, Riverside County, California. GSEP is in an undeveloped area of the Sonoran Desert on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. It is surrounded by the McCoy Mountains to the east, the Palen Mountains (including the Palen/McCoy Wilderness Area) to the north, and Ford Dry Lake, a dry lakebed, to the south. California Intersate-10 is located to the south of the project facility. The project area is otherwise undisturbed, although the area has been used in the past for grazing, for off-highway vehicle recreation, and for military training prior to WW II. GSEP was certified by the CEC in September 2010 and began commercial operation in November 2013.

GSEP consists of two independent solar thermal electric generating facilities (Units 1 and 2) with a nominal net electrical output of 125-megawatts (MW) each, for a total net electrical output of 250 MW. Electrical power is produced using steam turbine generators fed from solar steam generators. The steam generators receive heated transfer fluid from thermal equipment comprised of arrays of parabolic mirrors that collect solar energy.

The project uses air cooled condensers, a dry cooling mechanism for power plant cooling. Process water for ancillary uses, including mirror washing, is supplied from on-site groundwater wells. Project cooling water blowdown is piped to lined, on-site evaporation ponds. The interconnection is an approximately 7-mile, 230 kilovolts transmission line from the GSEP to the new (as of 2014) Southern California Edison Colorado River Sub-Station, located to the southeast across Interstate 10 approximately 7 miles from the project.

The GSEP was developed by and continues to be operated by Genesis Solar LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and wholly owned subsidiary of NextEra™ Energy Resources LLC.