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A $700 million proposed solar power plant in the Mojave Desert in San Bernardino County that has faced challenges from environmentalists for nearly 20 years has finally gained clearance from the state for development.
On Monday, the California Energy Commission voted 4-0, with one commissioner absent, to approve the 2,670-acre Soda Mountain Solar Project, finding that its benefits outweigh potential environmental and wildlife impacts as California works to cut greenhouse gas emissions and supply all retail electricity from zero-carbon sources by 2045.
“We’re taking action to achieve that 100% clean energy future, to keep the lights on statewide in a clean way, and to improve the health outcomes for those in disadvantaged communities and all Californians,” Commissioner Noemi Otilia Osuna Gallardo said during Monday’s business meeting in Sacramento.
Gallardo said fossil fuels have “polluted our environment for far too long, adversely affecting our planet, wildlife and people,” and noted that 40% of California’s 64 fossil fuel power plants are located in disadvantaged communities.
The project still has one more hurdle to clear before development can begin: approval by the federal government.
Bureau of Land Management spokesperson Kate Miyamoto told the Southern California News Group that Bureau of Land Management’s Barstow field office received the project application in January, and Is “working with the applicant to ensure the submission is complete and complies with all applicable federal regulations.”
“Once that review is complete,” she said, “the BLM will determine next steps toward formally accepting the application and initiating the environmental review process. No decision timeline has been announced.”
Soda Mountain Solar LLC, a subsidiary of New Jersey-based V.C. Renewables, proposes the 300-megawatt electrical generating plant and battery energy system adjacent the 15 Freeway, 7 miles south of Baker. It would operate year-round and deliver electricity to the state power grid.
Soda Mountain would create about 200 construction jobs and up to 40 part-time operations positions, plus additional jobs as needed, according to the California Energy Commission.
“This project doesn’t solely deliver clean, reliable energy — it brings jobs and meaningful economic investment to the region,” Gallardo said in a statement. “We are committed to seeing that the benefits of California’s energy transition are felt locally, in the communities where these projects are built.”
Benjamin Pratt, vice president of International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 477, said the hundreds of jobs generated by the project also would open the union’s apprenticeship doors and create a “pathway to a true middle-class living wage job.”
The state is advancing the proposal under a fast-track “opt-in” process that shifts authority on such projects from local officials to the state so it can pursue its clean energy goals. A 2025 law enabled developers to revive stalled desert projects even when local officials object.
Soda Mountain is the second renewable energy project approved by the state through the Opt-In Certification Program, according to the California Energy Commission. In June 2025, the commission approved the Darden Clean Energy Project in Fresno County, which the California Energy Commission touted as the world’s largest solar and battery storage project.
The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in 2016 opposed the project over environmental concerns — concerns that have continued by environmental and wildlife preservation groups.
“The commission could have permitted a smaller-sized project while following the recommendations of the bighorn sheep scientists, but it didn’t,” said Neal Desai, senior Pacific regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association. “It was pretty obvious that this was a pre-determined outcome to give the developer what it wanted — wildlife or tens of millions in taxpayer funds be damned.”
He was referring to three wildlife crossings in the works by Caltrans, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Brightline West, a privately funded, 218-mile, high-speed rail project connecting Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas that is under construction. The approximately $100 million project comprises three wildlife crossings — 100 feet wide and 240 to 400 feet long — along the I-15 corridor between Barstow and the Nevada state line. The crossings have a targeted completion date of April 2027.
Greg Herner, on behalf of Safari Club International and Safari Club International California Commission, told the California Energy Commission during Monday’s meeting that the solar project’s threat to bighorn sheep is a “critical issue.”
“We need to create as much opportunity for this iconic species to be able to maintain their historic migration routes,” Herner said.
Hannah Arkin, CEO of Resolution Environmental, spoke on behalf of V.C. Renewables and Soda Mountain Solar LLC during Monday’s meeting. She said the project site was intentionally situated near large-scale infrastructure, including high-voltage transmission lines and the 15 Freeway, and not in in “pristine undeveloped area.”
“Our siting approach minimizes the need for new off-site transmission infrastructure while avoiding unnecessary disturbance to undeveloped areas,” Arkin said. “Projects like Soda Mountain play an important role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supporting California’s transition to a lower carbon energy system.”
She said “direct, indirect and induced’ economic output during construction of the facility is estimated at more than $272 million, while “direct, indirect and induced” output during facility operation is estimated at $468 million.
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