Oberon Solar Project: From "Planet Saving Carbon-Free Solar Power" to Data Centers

January 2, 2026 - Riverside County, CA - When the utility-scale Oberon Solar Project was approved on public lands in 2022 in the Colorado Desert public lands south of Joshua Tree National Park, many old growth desert ironwood trees were removed. Some were over 1,000 years old. The Bureau of Land Management issued this statement: 

“The completion of the Oberon Solar Project underscores the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) commitment to responsible energy development in pursuit of a carbon free power sector,” said BLM California State Director, Karen Mouritsen. “This project is another example of the Bureau’s steadfast commitment to the furtherance of renewable energy and prioritizing a healthier planet.” 

Interesting now that the builders, Intersect Power, have been bought by a company that will now build resource-wasting data centers. Saving the planet appears to be less profitable these days.

Situated east of Palm Springs, CA, the 2,700-acre Oberon Solar Project has been constucted and is now in operation on public lands that were once wild desert ecosystems. The project is rated at up to 500 megawatts (MW), with 200 MW of Lithium-ion battery storage.

This is one of the first new utility-scale solar projects approved under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) that was not grandfathered in from older applications, and thus is significant in setting a precedent for how future solar projects are negotiated and approved under the DRECP. In spite of BLM's new mitigation measures negotiated between the contentious environmental assessment and final decision under the DRECP, this project was still allowed to kill a significant amount of desert ironwood trees--an imperiled vegetation community in California. 

In 2021 we visited the site of the the-proposed Oberon Renewable Energy Project, a photovoltaic solar project proposed on one of the worst sites in Chuckwalla Valley--full of microphyll woodland, sandy washes, a crucial connectivity corridor for wildlife, archaeological sites, Federally Threatened Mojave desert tortoise Critical Habitat, and a healthy population of Mojave fringe-toed lizards (Uma scoparia). This Colorado Desert landscape should have been protected in full as an Area of Critical Environmental Concern, and not included as part of a large Development Focus Area for energy under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP).

Surprisingly, 600 acres of designated Critical Habitat for the desert tortoise was approved by the Bureau of Land Management for development for the Oberon Solar Project. The habitat is located in desert dry wash woodlands where tortoise dine on the fallen seed pods of the ironwood trees.

We commented heavily during the environmental review of the project, but unlike so many current opinions on how permitting slows these projects, we witnessed the review streamlined and quick to be approved. Local communities and Tribes were ignored.

We even tried to sue to stop the project because it would use up nearly all microphyll wash woodland mitigation allowances  given out in the DRECP for the entire plan area for its 30-year duration--for just this one solar project! But no attorney would touch a "green energy" project. The project was built. Now the energy will go to data centers, not lessen CO2 emissions.

The Oberon Solar Project archive pages.