Alternative Energy Projects Sought to Fill Empty Land

Never seeing their dreams of a major airport in Antelope Valley realized as of yet, officials of Los Angeles World Airports are now hoping to make money off unused land that they own there by opening it up to alternative energy developers for wind and solar projects. The Board of Airport Commissioners on Dec. 6 approved 10 companies as qualified to build such projects. LAWA looks to have a request for at least two proposals go out in early 2011 and to award a contract by the middle of the year. The 17,000 acres was bought by the city agency in the 1960s for an airport that was never built and other than a few buildings that had been used for film production and now by NASA, the land has remain unused. Among the companies expressing interest in building on the site are First Solar, which is already moving on another solar project elsewhere in the Antelope Valley, and World Energy USA Inc., which has proposed a project in conjunction with the City of Palmdale. “It was quite surprising there were some small firms that had good ideas and had financial wherewithal to be able to put in what they were suggesting,” said Debbie Bowers, deputy executive director, commercial development for LAWA. After joining LAWA in 2008, the Palmdale property caught Bowers’s eye. Coming from a real estate background, she saw the empty land differently from others at the agency still focused on the original intent of an airport. Looking at ways of using the land that would still make it compatible with an airfield, if one were ever to be built, alternative energy uses kept popping up as the best alternative. A 2009 study by Jones Lang LaSalle for LAWA to determine the best use for the site also recommended alternative energy. With its abundance of sunshine and open space, renewable energy companies have zeroed in on the Antelope Valley as a place to build. The City of Lancaster has been aggressive in bringing solar projects into its boundaries, with three having met approval. Other solar and wind projects are proposed for unincorporated Los Angeles and Kern counties. Ambitious plans The City of Palmdale has ambitious plans itself on the drawing board. The city looks to build a power plant that would have a solar component and has joined with other municipalities and companies on the World Energy Center that would create a clean energy corridor in the High Desert, including on the LAWA property. The city wanted to get involved with the project because much of the proposed airport land falls within its boundaries and as protection to the aerospace work taking place at Air Force Plant 42, located to the northwest of the LAWA property. “We don’t want any developments in close proximity to that property that would interfere (with the aerospace work),” said Laurie Lile, assistant city manager for Palmdale. Leasing the land for the solar projects would help LAWA recoup the cost on its books of managing that property, funds that currently get funneled away from the operation of Los Angeles International Airport. At the Dec. 6 meeting, the airport commissioners approved a three-year contract with Linc Facility Services for property management services at a cost not to exceed $2.5 million. The LAWA property includes the 307-acre Site 9, with buildings once occupied by aerospace and defense contractor Rockwell International. The buildings were late used for feature film production, including “The Terminal” and “Pirates of the Caribbean.” In 2007, the airport agency signed a 20-year lease with NASA for use of one of the hangars by the Dryden Flight Research Center.