Solar Development Guidelines Released for Public Lands

On July 24, the Department of the Interior and the Department of Energy released plans to facilitate solar power generation on Bureau of Land Management lands in the western United States. The roadmap policy designates Solar Energy Zones (SEZs) available for utility-scale project development. The 17 SEZs include 285,000 acres (445 square miles) across Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California.

In designating the SEZs, the federal government considered solar resources, cultural and environmental conflicts, as well as proximity to transmission. The plan excludes 78 million acres of environmentally sensitive areas from solar development, including critical habitat for the threatened desert tortoise. The SEZs are adjacent to existing or planned transmission for easy grid integration.

The plan includes a final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) which will streamline the permitting process for solar projects within the SEZs. The PEIS identifies industry best-practice methods to minimize an installation's environmental impacts and outlines damage mitigation plans.

In addition to the SEZs, the government delineates an additional 19 million acres which may be cleared for development on a case-by-case basis. Fully developed, the SEZs and the additional areas are estimated to include 23,700 megawatts of generation capacity, which is enough to power about 7 million homes.

The rule will published in the Federal Register on July 27. It is available for comment for 30 days, after which it can be finalized by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. The 5,900 megawatts of generation currently in the planning process in the Southwest, are not subject to the new rules.

Resources:

• Executive Summary of the Solar PEIS.
• Final Solar PEIS.
• List of 17 Solar Energy Zones.
• Map of the six states

Sources:

• DOI Press Release
• Los Angeles Times