Geothermal plant project at Salton Sea cancelled by Warren Buffet’s owned CalEnergy
Hudson Ranch I geothermal power plant, Salton Sea, California/ U.S. (source: EnergySource) -image not related to story directly -
Alexander Richter
17 Aug 2017
Plans for the development of a 159 MW geothermal power plant at Black Rock in the Salton Sea/ California have been abandoned by CalEnergy, a Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway owned power company.
As reported yesterday in California, CalEnergy, which is owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Energy, asked the California Energy Commission earlier this summer to terminate the license for Black Rock. The company had requested and received extensions of the construction start deadline in 2007, 2011 and 2014, but this time decided to move on rather than pay a $27,678 annual compliance fee that would have been due at the end of June.
The Black Rock geothermal plant was initially approved for development about 14 years ago, which would have tapped a large geothermal reservoir at the Salton Sea in Califonria, but it was never built and now the plug has been pulled.
There are seen lots of challenges with regards to development of geothermal power project in Imperial Valley, with the Imperial Irrigation District (IID) blaming the California Independent System Operator for trying to crush the company “out of existence” by making it difficult to export geothermal and other forms of clean energy from the region.
The initial license from 2003, saw the development of a single 215 MW MW geothermal power plant. while it was modified to three smaller units of a total of 159 MW in 2009, the project found it difficult to secure finance and a PPA with a utility.
For further details see link below.
Source: Desert Sun
