Clean energy boom spurs pushback. ‘Cumulative impacts are being ignored.'

SAN DIEGO - As San Diego County races to meet green energy targets, sprawling developments are transforming backcountry communities - and residents of those areas want a voice in the process before their homes are reshaped by solar, wind and battery storage projects.

Two projects in the Sonoran Desert not far from the U.S.-Mexico border illustrate the difficulties of trying to balance the demand for more clean energy while minimizing disruptions to those who live near them.

A solar farm and battery storage project approved by the county is under construction in Jacumba. A similar proposal in nearby Boulevard is being reviewed by the county. Both demand significant space, requiring hundreds of acres of flat, developable land, alongside existing energy transmission lines. Those conditions converge in the backcountry, particularly in the county's rural eastern region.

While residents say they understand the need for more clean energy projects to combat climate change and power the region, they say concessions must be made. They want to set the framework for stronger consideration of potential impacts on safety and the landscape. They also have sought the establishment of community benefit funds where developers contribute a pool of money to offset local impacts and ensure the community shares economic gain from the project.

California's clean energy mandate will require all of the state's electricity to come from renewable sources by 2045. The board of San Diego Community Power, a local public agency that provides electricity to nearly 1 million homes and businesses across the county, took that a step further by committing to using 100% renewable energy by 2035.

Reaching those goals will come at a cost, as the residents of Jacumba and Boulevard are realizing.

‘An industrial-sized project in people's backyards'

Boulevard's rolling ranchland is scattered with homes that tuck into a hilly terrain. The horizon is scattered with tall wind turbines, crowned with blinking red lights visible from miles away in the nighttime sky.

The proposed Starlight Solar project would industrialize about 588 acres near Old Highway 80 with a solar farm capable of producing up to 100 megawatts and a 217-megawatt battery energy storage system. It was brought forward in 2023 by Haagan Company, the owners of the land.

Residents say the development could provide a snapshot of the backcountry's future: a once-quiet landscape becoming painted with industrial projects.

"I want to be clear, we are not against renewable energy," said Thomas Wall, a 10-year resident of Boulevard. "Our concerns are about an industrial-sized project in people's backyards without any consideration for the community."

Wall said he found out about the project in September 2025 when he received a letter from the county containing an environmental impact report.

What was most shocking to him was the "size of the project" and "obvious fire concerns" associated with it, particularly stemming from the battery storage system.

"They want to put the batteries at the very front of the project, which is close to the substation that is right along Jewel Valley Road, which is our only evacuation route," Wall said. "There is only one road in and one road out for those houses back there."

Jim Whalen, a land-use consultant for the project, said he "can understand people being concerned."

Describing the proposal as "light on the land," Whalen said the proposed solar farm will have 300- and 400-foot setbacks from roads and property lines, 500-foot setbacks from homes and 1,200-foot setbacks from homes to the batteries.

Starlight Solar is conducting the county's first battery safety study to analyze potential hazards in the event of a battery fire, Whalen added.

But residents worry this project and others of a similar size are being proposed for their community without proper analysis of fire hazards and potential cumulative impacts of such widespread industrialization.

"They let battery fires burn; when they burn, these toxic gases go into the air and people have to be evacuated," Wall said.

Two years ago, a fire at a San Diego Gas & Electric Co. battery storage facility in Escondido led to the evacuation of hundreds of individuals.

At the same time, another battery storage project, named Desert Jewel, is also being proposed for Boulevard. Brought forward by AES, the same company associated with the battery project in Escondido, the proposal is in the initial stages.

Starlight Solar is expected to be discussed by the county Planning Commission some time this summer.

Lessons from Jacumba

Just seven miles down the transmission line in the neighboring town of Jacumba, construction of another large-scale solar farm and battery storage facility is underway.

Heading east on Old Highway 80, the desert landscape is dotted with dry shrubs and rolling hills covered in cacti and yucca trees.

At the edge of town, the industrial transformation is already visible. Bright orange safety fencing lines both sides of the highway. The first few rows of solar panels have gone up. Beyond the solar field is the U.S.-Mexico border.

Dubbed "JVR Energy Park," the project was brought to the county by the Germany-based renewable energy company Baywa r.e. Americas, featuring a 90-megawatt solar energy farm and 90-megawatt battery storage facility that spans about 600 acres.

Officials say the project will supply electricity to about 57,000 homes in the county.

The proposal didn't come without opposition from local residents, who were primarily concerned with the size of the project.

Jeff Osborne moved to Jacumba in 2020. He said he found out about the solar project while reviewing parcel records for the Jacumba Hot Springs Hotel, which he now co-owns.

Now chair of the community's sponsor group, Osborne described the scale of the development as "just too much."

"Our position wasn't ever no project, it was that we wanted it to be farther from town," Osborne said.

The project was approved by county leaders in 2021, but officials required it to include a $4 million community benefit fund.

Setbacks were another requirement of the project's approval; county officials required construction to be at least 400 feet from homes.

But visual impacts of the project were "unavoidable," according to the project's final environmental impact report. Residents of the easternmost portion of Jacumba say the site is visible from their backyards.

Brandon Reinhardt, a senior director of land entitlements for BayWa r.e., said the benefits package and project setbacks were "developed in real-time with the community."

"This project is one of the largest, if not the largest community benefits agreement that's ever been done on a solar project in San Diego County," he said.

A group of residents unsuccessfully sued the county over the project, alleging it violated state environmental laws and claimed the size of the development would turn Jacumba "into an ugly, foreboding, industrial eyesore."

Construction on the solar farm started in late November 2025. The county requires the work to stop if winds exceed 25 mph at the site, but Osborne said that hasn't been the case.

"In the meantime, our town is just getting covered in dust," Osborne said. "They have the ability, it would just be more expensive for them to keep that dust under control. There are people that have actual medical issues from the dust."

Cody Ledwig, Baywa r.e.'s site manager for the project, said monitors check the site throughout the day to measure wind speeds while water is dumped on the site to mitigate dust.

Osborne said he has measured "many" days where wind speeds surpassed county limits, yet construction continued. Construction has been paused due to high winds, Ledwig said, though he couldn't say how many times.

‘We just want to sit at the table'

Residents of backcountry communities and clean energy developers agree on two things: more utility-scale projects are coming, and that will require collaboration.

"Really large projects are designed to be done at a large scale and then imported on (to) transmission lines to the heavy load centers, like big cities," Reinhardt said. "It's just economics and where land costs less. Usually, we need a bunch of it and it needs to be flat and that is hard to find in California; it lands in rural areas."

Looking at what transpired in Jacumba, Wall said he hopes there will be a stronger framework for stakeholder collaboration on clean energy developments in the future.

‘Cumulative impacts are being ignored'

A seat at the table is a start, Wall said, adding that the county "needs good parameters in place so it's not just taking; it's a balance of giving and receiving."

"The cumulative impacts are being ignored," Wall said, urging developers and county officials to reflect on the broader impact that renewable energy developments could have on backcountry communities.

As the county considers the project in Boulevard, he said residents are not focused on opposing the project as a whole, but instead organizing the community to advocate for further setbacks, strong regulation on construction and an adequate benefits package.

"We have accepted that the county is most likely going to approve some form of this project," Wall said. "If it's gonna take character away from the rural character, we want to know what the community benefits are going to be like."

Through negotiations with the county and project consultants, the town has secured up to $10 million in community benefit funding, Wall said, which will go toward a resource center and other improvements to the neighborhood.

From a land-use perspective, Whalen said good project stewardship isn't hard when you have a lot of land to work with.

"Not all solar sites are equal, not all solar projects work with the community," Whalen said "If you can do that, you're gonna have a better outcome."

That will also require developers and the county to look at the bigger picture as clean energy projects continue to pop up along transmission lines across the backcountry, Wall said.

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This story was originally published May 27, 2026 at 4:08 AM.