Department of Energy October 22, 2010 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

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 electricity would be sold to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) under a long-term power purchase agreement. The Project would be interconnected into PG&E's existing Morro Bay-Midway 230- kilovolt (kV) transmission line, which runs in an east-to-west direction through the site. The EIS will evaluate the potential environmental impacts of the issuance of a DOE Loan Guarantee for Topaz's proposed Project and the range of reasonable alternatives. The purposes of this Notice of Intent are to inform the public about DOE's proposed action; invite public participation in the EIS process; announce plans for a public scoping meeting; and solicit public comments for consideration in establishing the scope and content of the EIS. DOE is hereby providing notice of a proposed action in a floodplain and that DOE will include a floodplain assessment in the EIS. DOE invites those agencies with jurisdiction by law or special expertise to be cooperating agencies.

This notice announces a meeting of the Environmental Management Site-Specific Advisory Board (EM SSAB), Nevada Test Site. The Federal Advisory Committee Act (Pub. L. No. 92-463, 86 Stat. 770) requires that public notice of this meeting be announced in the Federal Register.