A committee of the California Energy Commission officially recommended last week that the enormous Blythe Solar Power Project be allowed to move forward.

The public will now be able to comment on the project, which would comprise four, 242-megawatt concentrating solar power systems in a remote part of Riverside County. The full commission will vote on the plan - which is being developed by a firm called Solar Millennium, LLC - next month.

Solar Millennium also needs a construction permit from the Bureau of Land Management, but the company's CEO, Josef Eichhammer, said it expected to receive that permit in short order. "We plan to receive all construction permits this fall and to finalize the financing for our first project, representing approximately 484 megawatts of generating capacity, so that we can start construction by the end of this year," he indicated.

If Blythe moves forward as planned, it would be the world's largest CSP facility. It would not only contribute significantly to California's renewable portfolio standards requirement - utilities in the state have to buy a third of their power from renewable sources by 2020 - but would use far less water than other utility-scale projects. Blythe, its developers say, would use 90 percent less water than older CSP designs.