This 3,600-acre project, located adjacent to I-15 near the California-Nevada border, is one of the largest solar thermal projects under construction in the world. The system consists of three separate plants that provide electricity to PG&E and Southern California Edison. The facility includes three approximately 500-foot tall receiving towers and 173,500 heliostats (mirrors) that focus solar rays onto the towers.
ENGEO coordinated and performed the subsurface investigation, geotechnical sampling, laboratory testing and field geophysical testing for two towers, a common area, substation, and heliostat fields. The project included: a compressed sampling and testing schedule, sieving very large (dump truck size) samples, drilling through very dense gravelly alluvial fan deposits up to 220 feet deep, difficult access and biologic constraints, plate load testing, resistivity testing, and downhole P-S logging.
