Solar companies to study lake bed

By Cassie Tomlin

Thursday, Oct. 2, 2008 | midnight

Parts of the dry lake bed in the future might be home to a solar plant.

The City Council Sept. 23 voted unanimously to allow solar power companies to study whether expanding the Energy Zone into the dry lake bed would be possible and beneficial.

At least four energy companies are interested in building on the playa, which is near the energy grid, City Manager Vicki Mayes said.

The City Charter currently limits that spot, which is in the Western Area Power Administration transfer corridor, to peaking plants, easements and communication towers.

The interested parties now may study drainage and soil on the salty plane to see if it can support a solar operation.

"My thought is that it is unlikely the city would want to dispose of the dry lake unless it was for a solar plant," she said.

The city in 1995 purchased 165 square miles in the Eldorado Valley, including the dry lake bed, from the Bureau of Land Management to create the Energy Zone, desert tortoise habitat and recreation zones.

The lake bed has historically been used for racing cars, sky dive landing and for boats when it floods, Community Development Director Brok Armantrout said.

Jim Douglass, a resident, suggested during the public comments that the council should consider that, about once a year, the dry lake bed is not dry.

"I wouldn't put anything there I wanted to keep," he said.

The area the city would consider is the southernmost, which doesn't often flood after rain, Mayes said.

Cassie Tomlin can be reached at 948-2073 or cassie.tomlin@hbcpub.com.