Announced yesterday, the Hudson Ranch II 49 MW geothermal power plant project by EnergySource in the Imperial Valley was approved by the Imperial County Board of Supervisers, following an earlier approval by the county’s planning commission.
The plant was approved at the same time as the Simbol Calipatria Plant II by Simbol Materials, a company that plans to extract Lithium and other valuable metals from the geothermal brine of the project.
It is expected that both plants will provide jobs and tax revenues for the county. Despite appeals by various groups on issues such as hydrology, loss of agricultural land etc., the Board of Supervisors said that “negative impacts are planned to be mitigated by the developer to less than significant levels.”
The company is expected to start construction in late 2013 or in the first quarter of 2014, so Larry Grogan, senior VP of resources and development for Energy Source.
Source: Imperial Valley Press
