29Palms Solar Project: Who Benefits?
What are the potential negative effects? What are the benefits?
On Thursday, March 21, 5 pm, at Patriotic Hall in Luckie Park, the City of Twentynine Palms is holding a public scoping meeting on the solar project that E-Group PS, LLC, is proposing to build in the City. In addition to the scoping meeting, the public is invited to submit public comment—the deadline is March 29. Comments should be mailed Community Development Director Keith Gardner at City Hall, 6136 Adobe Rd., Twentynine Palms, CA 92277 or emailed to him at kgardner@29palms.org. Details can be viewed on the City website.
Scoping meetings are often held at the start of preparing an Environmental Impact Report or other review. There are usually presentations by stakeholders and the opportunity for public comment. The City’s staff has prepared a “Notice of Preparation and Initial Study,” a comprehensive overview of the solar facility project.
In its review, the City has determined that the project could have significant effects on aesthetics, air quality, biological resources, geology/soils, cultural resources, land use, and tribal cultural resources, among others, and requires that the developer prepare an Environmental Impact Report.
We take a closer look here at who benefits if this solar farm is built. More renewable energy and less dependence on fossil fuels benefits everyone in reducing carbon emissions and taking action to slow climate change. But what are the costs of solar farms in communities they occupy? And in the case of the 29Palms Solar Project, who benefits?
The Desert Trumpet obtained documents and communication about the project from City staff in a public information request and from them, we’ve assembled background on the 29Palms Solar Project.
To start off, here are some of the solar farm’s specs:
The solar farm will connect to the Southern California Edison (SCE) network at the Carodean substation, about a half mile from the site. An easement will be needed along Two Mile Road for transmission lines to connect the solar farm to the substation.
Construction is proposed to begin in a year or so and take six months to a year to complete.
The lifespan for the facility is estimated to be 35 years.
E-Group plans for 720 ground-mounted photovoltaic (PV) arrays, each 104 feet wide and 252 feet long.
A seven-foot-tall fence surrounding the solar field will have “eco-passages” for wildlife.
The Project will generate approximately 50 megawatts of electricity per year (although the documents are confused), which they claim would be enough to power 8,000 households.
Who Are the Landowners and Developers? How Do They Benefit?
The owner of the parcels for the proposed solar farm is Proactive Properties, LLC, based in Las Vegas, and owned by George Mulopulos, a Las Vegas radiologist whose limited liability corporation owns many parcels in Twentynine Palms. Dr. Mulopulos frequently emails comments to be read at City Planning Commission meetings encouraging the City to maintain a business-friendly climate.
The solar farm parcels are being leased by E-Group PS LLC based in New Castle, Delaware, with a branch registered in Temecula. E-Group PS has no website, very little online presence or evident track record, but it represents itself in the PowerPoint deck it presented to the City as having been founded in 2008. It now manages $1.2 billion in assets.
K&L Gates, an international law firm,1represents E-Group PS in its interactions with the City. Staff lawyer Robert M. Smith communicates with the City and presented the project to the City Council in May 2023.
Energy produced by the 29Palms Solar Project will be sold by the developers to Southern California Edison (SCE) for distribution through its grid. The price SCE pays is dynamic and varies during the day; at mid-day on March 19 the price was $0.03365 per kilowatt hour.2 If we assume that the solar farm will produce 50 megawatts a year (a megawatt is one million watts), the developers and landowners could receive $1,600,000 or more a year from SCE for energy from the sun beating on the City’s desert slopes.
Project costs are not included in the materials the Desert Trumpet obtained in its public information request so it is not possible to offset costs against profits.
Alternately, the developers and landowners could sell the solar farm to a mega-energy corporation like Duke Energy, which acquired the Highlander 1 solar farm on Lear Road from SolarWorld, the developer, in 2013.
What Are the Potential Adverse Impacts? What Are the Benefits?
Moratorium. Currently, the City's Development Code does not allow for commercial solar farms (19.18.030 Allowed Uses and Permit Requirements). It banned utility-scale solar facilities in 2012, shortly after the Highlander 1 Solar Field became operational. The Planning Commission stated:
Commercial Solar Fields can be shown to have direct, adverse impacts to the aesthetic quality of the desert vistas the community now enjoys, deleterious effects to the tourist industry that the community depends on, potential adverse impacts to property values for the properties adjoining or surrounding such facilities, potential decreases in the quality of life for those individuals that reside with properties adjacent to or surrounding such facilities, and potential serious impacts to the biologic, cultural and social resources of our community.
In a May 17, 2023, letter to the City, the K&L Gates law firm representing E-Group PS said that it was aware of the moratorium.
“In the event that the City elects to maintain its current moratorium and not work with E- Group, E-Group will pursue approvals through the permitting process recently established through Assembly Bill 205, which is intended to facilitate the approval of renewable energy projects by the State without any local approval. If approved by the State, the City will have far less control over project design and conditions of approval and would receive substantially less in public benefits. While this is not E-Group’s preferred outcome, it is willing to vigorously pursue this route if needed.”
Per California AB-205 signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022, local governments have limited authority to ban or place burdensome approval conditions on large solar power developments. One California law firm outlines the conditions to receiving state-level permitting, including demonstrating:
that a skilled and trained workforce is hired
a net positive economic benefit to the local government that would have had authority over the project
that it has entered into an enforceable community benefits agreement with one or more community-based organizations, such as labor unions, environmental groups, local government, social justice advocates or California Native American tribes.
circulation of a draft environmental impact report for a period of not less than 60 days.
The parcels proposed for the 29Palms Project are zoned Single Family Residential RL5. In addition to overriding the City’s moratorium, E-Group will be seeking a development code amendment, general plan amendment, and zone change to permit the project on the site.
Public Benefits. Power generated by the 29Palms Project would be sold directly to SCE and distributed to their grid. In a May 23, 2023, presentation to the City Council, Robert Smith with K&L Gates said, “we can negotiate a deal that actually provides the power directly to the City.” Then-City Manager Frank Luckino mentioned a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) package that allows cities to purchase and/or generate electricity from investor-owned utilities.
Other benefits to the City outlined by E-Group PS include:
Property and production taxes paid to the City
Production of 101 GWh a year (see footnote 2), which could power all households in the City
200 construction jobs and 300 total jobs over the life of the project3
In May 2023, City Manager Frank Luckino requested $50,000 from the developers. “With the City starting to spend legal, environmental, and staff time on this project, can you please issue a deposit towards the entitlement process ASAP.” These funds were received and helped cover the City’s costs.
The City’s initial study cites the possibility that up to 120 single-family homes could be built on the southern half of the property not used by the solar panels. This would provide much-needed housing but would also have environmental consequences with increased traffic and emissions associated with houses and vehicles.
What Are the Environmental Impacts?
The City’s initial study, filed February 21, cites the possibility of these negative environmental impacts:
substantial degradation of the existing visual character or quality of public views;
creation of a new source of light or glare;
emissions affecting air quality will take place during construction;
a substantial adverse effect, either directly or through habitat modifications, on species identified as a candidate, sensitive, or special status species including the desert tortoise and the burrowing owl;
a possible impact on migrating birds;
a need to assess cultural resources, although the Project site is not located near water sources used by the Serrano or Chemehuevi—however, such resources occur throughout Twentynine Palms.
In the May 2023 City Council meeting, counsel Smith reported that the parcel is flat. The Aquatic Resources Delineation Report prepared by Dudek acknowledges what anyone driving along Samarkand Road can see—that the land slopes, steeply in places, 300 feet to the north and has several washes cutting across it.
The site will be graded to accommodate the rows of panels. The grading plan submitted with the Project estimates about 501,100 cubic yards of fill, and 501,500 cubic yards of cut, for a net export of 400 cubic yards. As a result, the completed Project has the potential to result in soil erosion, both from water and wind.
In addition to the public scoping meetings, the Desert Trumpet has learned that E-Group PS had scheduled a meeting with residents of Harmony Acres for Wednesday evening. We’ll be reporting on both meetings.
Per their website, “We are one of the largest law firms in the world. Spanning five continents, we have more than 45 offices located in key capital cities and world commercial and financial centers.” One of its partners was William H. Gates, the father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
The price of solar energy appears to be at a low point right now at $0.03365 per kilowatt hour. This time last year SCE paid $0.07494 per kilowatt hour.
Solar Electric Solutions, the developer of the Highland 1 solar facility off Lear Avenue, reported that its project, about half the size of the proposed facility, “created dozens of jobs for the local community.”
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Please check your math on the production payout expectation. One megawatt (MW) is made up of 1,000 kilowatts. SCE is paying $0.03365 per Kilowatt, not per watt. So the revenue would be 50,000 x $0.03365 = $1,682.50.
Edison will NOT be paying anywhere close to $1.6 Million per year!!
"Property and production taxes paid to the City".
I don't think so on property tax. It's a lease, not a transfer of title. Lease is less than 35 years, which triggers no change to property assessment.
Production taxes... maybe. Sales tax is negligible; only some equipment or partial equipment in certain circumstances can be charged sales tax, but I think there is another tax by a different name that could be captured.