gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day
Interior Unveils Solar Hot Spots Across West
Salazar says study areas could generate up to 100,000 megawatts.By David Frey, 6-30-09
Solar panels in California. Photo courtesy of BLM.
The Interior Department released maps on Tuesday detailing vast stretches of public land in the West that could be opened to utility-scale solar development.
The so-called Solar Energy Study Areas make up 670,000 acres in Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and California. (Click here for maps of the areas.)
The proposed areas focus on lands considered to have excellent solar access and manageable slopes, with roads and transmission lines or corridors nearby, and with at least 2,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land. Sensitive areas, wilderness areas and other lands with high-conservation values were ruled out.
“President Obama’s comprehensive energy strategy calls for rapid development of renewable energy, especially on America’s public lands,” Salazar said on Monday as he unveiled the plan in Nevada alongside Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev. “This environmentally-sensitive plan will identify appropriate Interior-managed lands that have excellent solar energy potential and limited conflicts with wildlife, other natural resources or land users.”
Salazar said the two dozen areas identified could generate nearly 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity.
“With coordinated environmental studies, good land-use planning and zoning and priority processing, we can accelerate responsible solar energy production that will help build a clean-energy economy for the 21st century,” he said.
The initiative is intended to pave the way for landscape-scale solar planning in the West, with a more streamlined permitting and siting process. The selected areas would be available for projects capable of producing at least 10 megawatts of electricity to the grid.
“The administration is taking the right approach,” said Craig Cox, executive director of the Interwest Energy Alliance, an industry trade group.
New Interior renewable energy coordination offices, intended to expedite renewable energy project applications, will be located in Arizona, California, Nevada and Wyoming.
“We’ve got sunny skies, strong winds, and land that when used properly, will allow us to lead the nation’s children into a cleaner, more efficient, and more profitable tomorrow,” Reid said.
Some environmentalists have praised the initiative.
“This is night and day when compared with the previous administration and the way oil and gas development has been approached,” said Alex Daue, renewable energy coordinator for The Wilderness Society. “The BLM is appropriately prioritizing a critical energy source for our clean energy future and, in the process, protecting public lands and guiding projects to the best places.”
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My pick is Nevada Geothermal, bringing a 49MW power plant online early October 2009
NGLPF.ob
Annualy, the world's human population increases by about 70 million. In this country, the annual increase is about 3 million. So even w/the posssibility of more efficient sources of energy, demand grows. As the amount of productive lands shrink--for example in Mexico where the majorty of land is desert--the pressures of mass migration continue to increase. The myth that continued immigration into this country will improve our standard of living, is just that a myth! I can't think of one "natural sytem" on earth that is not in decline--coral reefs, ocean fisheries, physical freedom & space, biodiversity & so on. For the pro growth folks, I would be interested in learning if they believe there is any unpard number of humans in this country that would scare the; one billion, 10 billion or 40 billion?