EDF Renewables North America is proposing the Bonanza Solar and Storage project on 5,133 acres of federal land in Clark County, Nevada. The facility is designed to combine 300 megawatts of solar generation with 195 megawatts of battery storage. Under a 20-year power-purchase agreement, electricity is scheduled to begin serving Pasadena Water & Power and Azusa Light & Water by December 2028, according to EDF Renewables.
The proposed site lies along U.S. Highway 95 between Indian Springs and the Mercury interchange. Western Watersheds Project and Basin and Range Watch have protested the proposal, saying the location functions as a passage between important Mojave desert tortoise habitats, 8 News Now reported. The groups are asking the Bureau of Land Management to reject the project and establish the Cactus Springs Area of Critical Environmental Concern.
Why the corridor is consequential
The dispute concerns more than the acreage directly covered by panels and batteries. The U.S. Geological Survey says a network of core Mojave desert tortoise habitats connected by linkages is needed to support demographically viable populations and long-term gene flow. The same report says tortoise occupation drops precipitously when development reaches about 5% of the surrounding landscape within one square kilometer, while cautioning that the effect of that threshold on long-term population fitness remains uncertain.
The conservation groups argue that construction would damage habitat and interrupt movement through the proposed site. Those are the groups’ assessments, not a finding that the Bonanza project will produce those effects. Their protest cites the 2012 Western Solar Plan and the 2011 Mojave Desert Tortoise Recovery Plan as support for treating the area as a corridor that should not be developed, according to 8 News Now.
Relocation is part of the unresolved question
Construction would require tortoises found in the work area to be moved. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identifies translocation as one management tool used alongside habitat restoration, threat reduction and research, and says the Mojave desert tortoise has been listed as threatened since 1990.
A separate example illustrates why the groups object to treating relocation as a complete substitute for habitat protection. In May 2021, at the Yellow Pine Solar Project near Pahrump, Nevada, biologists relocated 139 tortoises; the Victor Valley Daily Press reported that 30 died within weeks, with badger predation considered a likely cause while wildlife experts continued investigating. That incident involved a different project, site and set of conditions, so it does not predict what would happen at Bonanza.
Research also cautions against treating every translocation result as equivalent. A 2020 study hosted by the Fish and Wildlife Service reported annual survival above 0.89 for resident adult and juvenile tortoises at both study sites and for translocated adults at the southern site. The findings show that survival can be measured favorably in some groups and locations, but they do not resolve whether moving tortoises would preserve the function of Bonanza’s proposed corridor.
Federal planning provides context, not a decision
The BLM’s broader solar-planning work underscores why connectivity has become a siting issue. In a December 2024 programmatic planning document, the agency said its proposed utility-scale solar plan would exclude designated desert tortoise critical habitat, existing and future tortoise translocation sites identified with the Fish and Wildlife Service, and crucial connectivity areas under Exclusion #2. That document addresses a wider solar program; it does not automatically approve or bar Bonanza.
A separate BLM worksheet dated Aug. 19, 2020, described the different Copper Rays proposal as being in relatively undisturbed habitat. Because the worksheet concerned another project and prioritized applications rather than deciding Bonanza, it offers background on how federal officials have described nearby development proposals, not a conclusion about this site.
The central issue therefore remains open: whether the project’s design, mitigation and any required tortoise relocation would adequately protect connectivity through the proposed site. The available materials establish the groups’ objection and the ecological importance of linkages, but they do not establish the project’s eventual effects or the BLM’s final decision.
