Stagecoach Solar Project

Project Specifications

Client: California State Lands Commission

Location: San Diego County

Services: Environmental Review & Permitting, Compliance & Construction Monitoring, Biological Resources, Cultural Resources

Aspen Environmental Group is assisting the California State Lands Commission on behalf of Aurora Solar, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Avangrid Renewables, with the environmental permitting and the CEQA documentation for a proposed 200 megawatt (MW) solar photovoltaic facility with up to 200 MW of integrated energy storage on approximately 3,570 acres of land managed by the CSLC, in San Bernardino County, CA. The Proposed Project also includes a 9.1 mile 220 kilovolt (kV) electrical generation intertie (gen-tie) line to connect to the Statewide electricity grid at the proposed 7-acre Southern California Edison (SCE) Calcite Substation.

Under contract to CSLC, Aspen is preparing the Draft and Final EIR, with the Final EIR scheduled to be published in May 2022.The project would not physically touch any federal land. The only federal rights required would be the Right-of-Way (ROW) grant for aerial easements for the overhead gen-tie line crossing over public land administered by the BLM. The Aspen contract included all Biological and Cultural surveys. Aspen was supported by ECORP and Applied Earthworks for surveys, as well as Granite.

Aspen is preparing technical studies including cultural resources, groundwater and water supply analyses, and biological resources surveys (vegetation mapping, protocol desert tortoise surveys, burrowing owl and desert kit fox surveys, spring and fall rare plant surveys, and a jurisdictional delineation). Aspen Team experts are also conducting habitat suitability assessments for golden eagles and Mohave ground squirrels.