State energy officials have recommended approval of a solar plant near the Mojave National Preserve that has been opposed for nearly 20 years by environmentalists who claim it will endanger desert bighorn sheep and obstruct their migration patterns.
On Dec. 29, the California Energy Commission released an environmental impact report on the proposed Soda Mountain Solar Project, a 300-megawatt solar electrical generating plant and 300-megawatt battery storage system on 2,670 acres of federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
The proposed facility, about seven miles southwest of Baker and west of the Mojave National Preserve, would operate year-round and deliver electricity to the state’s power grid.
The Soda Mountain Solar Project, a proposed 2,670-acre solar plant near the Mojave National Preserve that has staunchly been opposed by environmentalists but could potentially bring hundreds of jobs to the area six miles southwest of Baker, has been revived after it was stalled for more than eight years.CEC staff recommended an alternative design that would create a quarter-mile buffer zone to protect desert bighorn sheep habitat and allow them more movement and grazing area. The proposed mitigation would, according to the EIR, result in “less than significant impacts” on the sheep, according to the CEC.
Additionally, the battery energy storage system would be built 500 feet away from the 15 Freeway for public safety in the event of a fire, according to the EIR.
The project, however, would “substantially degrade” public views of the site and its surroundings, according to the CEC.
Neal Desai, senior Pacific regional director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the proposed design still falls short of what wildlife biologists and researchers have proposed.
“The nation’s leading bighorn sheep scientists are saying this project presents profound risks, including local sheep extinction and making useless a $35 million taxpayer-funded wildlife crossing. Common sense screams this is a terrible idea, yet the Commission seems content with pursuing that outcome,” Desai said in an email.
“It’s tough to see how harming a national park, subverting science and wasting taxpayer funds is good politics for the State of California.”
The project’s footprint is in the vicinity of where one of three wildlife crossings is planned between Barstow and the state line. 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, have partnered on the $120 million project, about $35 million of which goes toward the Soda Mountain crossing, Desai said.
“The possibility that state government decision-making could undermine the success of the overpass, a legislatively required conservation effort, stands to damage public perception of and support for wildlife crossing structures,” according to a report submitted to the CEC by wildlife biologist Christina M. Aiello and wildlife researcher Clinton W. Epps, a professor at Oregon State University.
In addition to reducing the project’s footprint, Aiello and Epps also recommended in their report to delay construction of the solar plant until the wildlife crossing is built and adopted by the bighorn sheep, then to reassess the conditions for further mitigation if needed.
Construction of the project, according to the EIR, would contribute toward meeting the state’s greenhouse gas-reduction goals for 2030 and beyond.
First proposed nearly 20 years ago, the project has been scaled back 36%, from 4,179 acres in 2007 to 2,670 acres. The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors rejected the project in August 2016 due to environmental concerns and limited local benefits.
After eight years of inactivity, the applicant revived the project on Aug. 1, 2024, by applying directly to the California Energy Commission under Assembly Bill 205, a 2022 law allowing state-level approval. In August, the CEC provided an overview of the project at its first public scoping meeting.
The public has until 5 p.m. on Feb. 27 to weigh in on the EIR and project proposal. The commission then will vote at a future hearing to either approve or deny the project.
Soda Mountain is one of four energy projects making their way through state certification since the implementation of the opt-in process. The other three are the Compass Energy Storage Project in San Juan Capistrano, the Corby Battery Energy Storage System Project in Solano County, and the Potentia-Viridi Battery Energy Storage System in eastern Alameda County, according to a CEC spokesperson.
Two other projects have completed the opt-in certification process and were voted on by the commission. The commission approved the Darden Clean Energy Project in Fresno County in July 2025, but it denied the Fountain Wind Project in Shasta County in December 2025, according to the CEC.
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