Draft environmental impact statement and draft plan amendment to the California Desert Conservation Area Plan for the proposed Desert Sunlight Solar Farm Project

Desert Sunlight Holdings, LLC (Sunlight or Applicant), a wholly owned subsidiary of First Solar Development, Inc. (First Solar), proposes to construct and operate a 550-megawatt (MW), nominal capacity, alternating current (AC), solar photovoltaic (PV), energy-generating project known as the Desert Sunlight Solar Farm (DSSF). The Project consists of the PV generating facility (Solar Farm), most of the corridor for the associated 220-kilovolt (kV) generation interconnection transmission line (Gen-Tie Line), and one of two potential sites being considered for a new substation. The Project would be located on lands administered by the US Department of the Interior (DOI), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Palm Springs-South Coast Field Office. The Project would develop a new 500- to 220- (500/220-) kV substation (referred to herein as the Red Bluff Substation), where the PV generating facility would interconnect with the Southern California Edison (SCE) regional transmission system.