UPDATE 1-Tessera, Chevron solar plants win U.S. licenses

* BLM licenses two solar plants in Southern California

* California plants developed by Tessera, Chevron Energy (Adds quotes, project details)

By Sarah McBride

LOS ANGELES, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Two California solar power plants have become the first to win federal licenses to operate on U.S. public land, potentially clearing the way for other solar projects in the country's most populous state.

NTR's(NTRb.CO) Tessera Solar won approval for a 709-megawatt plant, and Chevron Corp.'s (CVX.N) Chevron Energy Solutions won approval for its 45-megawatt plant, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said on Tuesday. [ID:nN29283816]

The licensing, from the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management, fulfills the final requirement before a plant can begin construction and is the first for solar plants on U.S. public land.

Development of alternative energy has been a major platform of President Barack Obama and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as a way to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and create new jobs.

Tessera's plant, in the Imperial Valley near the Mexican border, will cost about $2.1 billion. It uses a concentrated thermal-power technology called SunCatcher that relies on mirrored dishes to convert sunlight into electricity.

The technology was developed by Sterling Energy, which like Tessera is majority-owned by Irish infrastructure company NTR.

The Imperial Valley plant would generate enough energy to power at least 212,000 homes, the BLM said.

The Chevron plant, in San Bernardino County's Lucerne Valley, will use photovoltaic solar technology, which relies on panels that turn sunlight directly into electricity. Chevron hasn't disclosed the cost of the plant.

The Lucerne Valley plant will generate enough electricity to power at least 13,500 homes, the BLM said.

The projects are among a group of fast-tracked solar power projects that federal agencies are coordinating on with the aim of finishing their permitting by year end.

Salazar said he anticipated the projects would be eligible for renewable energy loan guarantees administered by the Department of Energy, and he expected announcements on loans for various projects in the next several weeks.

BLM Director Bob Abbey said he expects the fast-tracked plants to meet a Dec. 31 deadline that would allow them to apply for a 30 percent grant created under stimulus funding.

His agency oversees 23 million acres (about 10 million hectares) with potential for solar, Abbey said, and is working on a plan that would identify the most promising areas to designate as "solar development lands" within that acreage.

Environmentalists generally support the two solar plants. The developers of the Imperial Valley plant worked with various groups and took steps such as moving the plant out of sensitive desert washes and scaling back its size, said the National Resources Defense Council's senior attorney, Johanna Wald.

Chevron's Lucerne project was "smart from the start," she added.

Another California project the BLM is expected to license later this week, BrightSource Energy Inc's 370 megawatt Ivanpah plant, is far more controversial. That's largely because it is proposed for land that is home to endangered desert tortoises. (for more environmental news see our Environment blog at blogs.reuters.com/environment) (Reporting by Sarah McBride; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)