The San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, August 19, 2025 gave unanimous approval to an industrial-scale solar project to be constructed in the virtually abandoned community of Hinkley in the western portion of the county’s Moajave Desert.
The project applicant, Overnight Solar LLC., which operates an existing solar generating facility on an adjoining property, had sought a conditional use permit to construct and operate a 150-megawatt photovoltaic solar facility, and 150-megawatt battery energy storage system on approximately 596 acres within an 822-acre parcel located at 41650 Lockhart Ranch Road in Hinckley and construct a 1.1-mile-long gen-tie line on a 456-acre parcel to connect the project to the Alpha substation.
According to Miguel Figueroa, the director of the county’s land use services department, told the board of supervisors in a staff report relating to the project that the project approval, if granted, would involve a policy plan amendment, a zoning amendment and and the conditional use permit for both the erection of the facility and its eventual operation.
The solar field will consist of photovoltaic solar cells and will include a battery energy storage system on approximately 596 acres of an 822-acre parcel, including a 1.1-mile-long gen-tie line located on an 456-acre parcel.
The battery energy storage system is to consist of individual lithium-ion cells contained in ten-foot-high steel battery cabinets confined within a 300-foot by-300 foot/90,000 square foot (2.06612-acre) area.
According to Figueroa, what he referred to as renewable energy generation facilities “are permitted under the Resource Land Management and Resource Conservation (RLM/RC) Land Use Category and Land Use Zoning District with a Conditional Use Permit.
The CUP will allow the construction and operation of a utility scale, un-staffed, solar PV electrical generation facility to produce up to 150 MW of alternate current (AC) or direct current (DC) generating capacity and to provide 8-hours of battery energy storage capacity of up to 150 MW. Configuration of the PV system includes single-axis trackers, bifacial PV modules, and central inverters on the Project Site.
The CUP also authorizes the construction of a private 1.1-mile-long gen-tie powerline corridor on the Adjacent Property to the east, which is owned by the same company.
The gen-tie line would serve as the interconnection allowing the Project’s powerlines to connect to the Alpha Substation. The Alpha Substation is a facility that transforms voltage and connects power generation to the distribution system to ensure efficient delivery to end users.
The private gen-tie powerlines are proposed to be 95 feet in height which would normally exceed the maximum height of structures within the resource conservation (RC) zone. However, because this use is being allowed and permitted under the similar and compatible provisions, height standards for “pipeline, transmission lines, and control stations” are controlling, and the California Public Utilities Commission for this similar use allows for utility-related structures to exceed the maximum height allowed in the underlying zoning if the height is necessary to, as in this case, provide for full operation capabilities of the electrical conveyance of utility facilities and protect the public.
For more than a dozen years, Hinkley has been a virtual ghost town, a circumstance which came about as a consequence of the contamination of the local water supply that occurred during the 1950s and 1960s when Pacific Gas & Electric utilized chromium-6 as an anti-corrosive agent in the cooling towers for the pressurizing stations built along the route of its West Texas-to-San Francisco natural gas line. Water from those towers was disposed of in unlined trenches near Hinkley and chromium-6, a highly toxic substance, has leached down into the water table as a result. Substantial numbers of local residents, concerned with the presence of chromium-6 in the environment, sold or outright abandoned their property. Pacific Gas & Electric, which has paid large settlements related to the contamination of the property, for many years participated in efforts to redress the contamination as well as supply the community with bottled water trucked in from outside the area or outfitted homes in Hinkley with water filtration systems. Eventually, the company hit upon the strategy of simply purchasing the property of all of the remaining residents or businesses in the community and emptying the community of its residents so that the chromium-6 clean up effort, which could cost well in excess of $200 million, does not need to be completed.
In this way, the area is considered to be an ideal location for certain types of industrial or other uses, including solar energy production facilities.