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US to make solar energy development on public land easier
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Issue
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Jul 27, 2012 12:44pm |
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| Category | Rule Change |
| Author | John Timmer |
| News Date | Friday, July 27, 2012 06:20:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | In the US, some of the best locations for generating solar power have been off-limits to development because they happen to be on federally owned land. Although the Department of the Interior has approved a number of utility-scale solar projects (17 since 2009), the permitting process remained cumbersome, and there was no way of judging whether these projects represented the best use of federal lands. To help foster the development of solar power, the DOI instituted a full review of both the lands it manages and the permitting process; the results of this review were released earlier this week.
The review focused on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management, and started by excluding about 78 million acres because they had scenic, historic, or cultural value. In the remaining areas, the DOI focused on identifying areas with good solar resources and access to existing or approved transmission infrastructure, so that the power could be easily plugged in to the existing grid. The end result showed 17 Solar Energy Zones (SEZs), covering just under 300,000 acres in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. An additional 19 million acres outside these zones were considered appropriate for solar development. |
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