Hearst Corp’s Jack Ranch cattle ranch could be the home of a proposed 2485 acre, 280 Megawatt solar project near the earthquake prone community of Parkfleld – some 25 miles east of Paso Robles.
The utility-scale solar farm proposed by Portland base Element Power is located in southeast Monterey County just across the border from SLO County.
Monterey County is processing an environmental impact report for the project called California Flats Solar that would connect Morro Bay power line to the Gates substation inFresno County. That high voltage line now brings power from the Morro Bay power plant to the Valley .
California Flats would be the third large triple digit solar project to be built in this remote part other state with this site just a few miles north of the Carrizo Plain where two mega- solar projects are under construction.
They total 775MW.
Monterey County is expecting to see an EIR on the sprawling energy farm this fall and the applicant has said they hope to be under construction in 2014 and be in operation in 2016.
The facility would be located on grazing land southeast of shaky Parkfield and east of Turkey Flats Rd – north of of Highways 41 and 46. The business would have 8 to 10 employees but 1.2 million solar panels.