"Unmitigated environmental impacts and non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations would require the Commission to adopt override findings if the project is approved," said the CEC.
The project is expected to feature two solar plants with a 250MW of capacity each, comprising 85,000 heliostats located across an area of 3,277 acres at Hidden Hills.
The $2.2bn project in Inyo County is scheduled for construction beginning April 2013 and expected to take over 2 years to complete.
CEC released a report on the final assessment stating that the project would affect the regions’ ‘biological resources, cultural resources, land use, and visual resources’ even after the implementation of recommended measures, reported Reuters.
BrightSource, meanwhile said that the company was still awaiting the formal evidentiary hearings to determine the project’s status.
