The first proposed commercial-scale solar energy project in Santa Barbara County has changed hands.

The Cuyama Solar Array Project is now being shepherded by First Solar, the same company proposing the much larger 550-megawatt Topaz Solar Farm on San Luis Obispo County’s Carrizo Plain. The Cuyama project was originally proposed in September 2009 by Edison Mission Energy, part of Southern California Edison.

First Solar wants to build a 45-megawatt array in the Cuyama Valley, a strip of ranch and farmland nestled between mountain ranges along the Cuyama River in Ventura, Santa Barbara and SLO counties. The project would feed power into a substation owned by Pacific Gas & Electric.

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