By KATHERINE ROSENBERG, Editor

LUCERNE VALLEY - Edison Mission Energy representatives said the company has decided to move forward with submitting applications to the county for two proposed solar projects in Lucerne Valley.

The first and larger of the two projects is to be built on about 900 acres near Barstow and Rabbit Springs Roads, said Bob Stiens, a project spokesman. Named the Rabbit Springs Solar Array, Stiens said an application to construct a solar park there was submitted to San Bernardino County last week.

That project, if constructed, would provide 100 megawatts, which is enough to power 65,000 homes daily, Stiens said.

An application for the second project, dubbed Strawberry Peak — which is to be built on 160 acres at Highway 18 and Canyon View Road — is to be submitted within the next few weeks, Stiens added. That project is expected to produce about 20 megawatts of electricity. The land is also considered “distressed land,” as a high pressure natural gas pipeline crosses the parcel, Stiens said.

“That is one of Edison Mission’s goals, to use distressed land that wouldn’t really be appropriate to build other things, like residential homes, on,” Stiens said.

Stiens and his team have given various presentations at recent Municipal Advisory Council and Lucerne Valley Economic Development Association meetings, and Stiens was expected to present again at MAC Tuesday night. He said that the decision to move forward with the projects was based on community member response as well as business fundamentals.

“It’s a number of things that helped us decide. As we go through the environmental analysis we didn’t find any significant issues that would prevent us from going forward, plus we had a generally positive reaction from the community who encouraged us to go forward, as well as the access to existing transmission lines so we feel these are both good sites,” Stiens said.

Locals tend to support this project more than others because it will not take away formerly protected BLM land, it will make good use of distressed land and because the panels at their highest point stand only six to eight feet in the air.

However, one concern raised at last month’s LVEDA meeting was that the Rabbit Springs project is to be erected on land where the Gobar homestead still stands. Several residents said they would like to see that piece of Lucerne Valley history preserved, something Stiens said he and the company will look at.

“We appreciate the community bringing that information to our attention and we're still looking at cultural issues as part of this process,” Stiens said.

Edison Mission representatives plan to host an open house sometime in early 2010 to answer questions and to get more input from the community.

The review of the application by the county and other governing agencies is expected to take more than a year, Stiens said, and following that stage Edison officials will then finalize connection to the grid and then secure a buyer for the energy.

The total estimated cost of the two projects combined would be approoximately $435 million, Stiens said.

As a result, San Bernardino County stands to earn roughly $8 million in sales tax, he added.