Golden Sun eXtra Your Local News Source, Mohave County, AZ

Cities in Mohave County and neighboring counties and states will review a draft plan for a large solar power plant project at Sterling, near Golden Shores.

Two public meetings took place recently in Golden Shores by Needle Mountain Power, LLC, which drew about 90 people. Needle Mountain Power proposes to build a 1,200-megawatt solar generating plant at Sterling.

The next step will be a 60-day review of the draft of the Sterling Area Plan and the Mohave County General Plan for the Sterling solar generating plant, county planner Kevin Davidson said, according to Tri-state Online.

Issues brought up at the meetings include the access to homes on Polaris Road, the loss of off-road vehicle access and the visual impact of thousands of solar panels. Needle Mountain Power is considering using the SunCatcher technology system, which looks like large satellite dishes.

The change to the area plan and general plan is expected to go before the planning and zoning commission on September 8 and possibly before the board of supervisors on November 1. The plan is available at county libraries and on the county’s website linking to the development services department. The solar project also would be the first to use the e-zone, which the county approved in 2009, Davidson said.

The draft will be reviewed by Bullhead City, Kingman, Lake Havasu City and Colorado City as well as neighboring Arizona, California, Nevada and Utah counties. The draft plan also will be reviewed by the Bureau of Land Management, the Arizona Department of Commerce, Arizona Department of Water Resources, Western Area Power Administration and other agencies.

The Sterling Area Plan would expand its boundary by about 2,200 acres for the solar power generating plant that would replace a proposed master planned community. The power plant would be built north of Interstate 40 east of Golden Shores.

The dry-cool solar plant would use about 10% percent of the 8,500 acre-feet of water already allocated by the ADWR to the defunct subdivision. The plant would use a photovoltaic solar system using water only to wash the panels. Wet-cool solar plants like the proposed Hualapai Valley solar project would use from 20 to 40 times the amount of water that dry-cooling plants uses, Davidson said.

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