Competitive Power Ventures, the Maryland company building the natural-gas powered Sentinel power plant in North Palm Springs started following me on Twitter this week, so I followed them right back.

The company’s latest tweet links to its web page for the 800-megawatt peaker plant, where you can see a series of aerial shots of the site, showing how the plant has risen from the desert sands.

The first shot was taken almost a year ago, September 2011

The most recent was taken in July.

Looks pretty near complete to me.  It’s amazing how small things can look from the air. Those smoke stacks are supposed to be 90 feet tall.

A recent court ruling on the validity of the air emission credits CPV bought from the South Coast Air Quality Management District has not stopped construction, though the plant cannot go online until the Environmental Protection Agency revises a rule allowing the credits.

My most recent communication from an EPA official indicated the agency is working on the revised rule. To meet the terms of its power purchase agreement with Southern California Edison, CPV must have the plant online no later than August 2013, a company official siad.