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
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.”
[End of article]"Some environmentalists have praised the initiative." That some is pretty key, and it will become even more key as miles of solar panels are planned for areas where this or that group doesn't want them. Then the lawsuits will fly.
Comment By Mickey Garcia, 6-30-09To make solar, wind, and geothermal work properly, our entire transmission system needs to be refurbished and you can bet your boots the environmental extremists and the BANANA E NIMBYS will be trying to obstruct it tooth and nail. And solar, wind and geothermal combined can only supply about 20% of the nations energy needs.
Comment By Rick, 7-01-09Thanks for this good article. After eight years of the Bush/Cheney GOP "drill, baby, drill" mantra, it is refreshing that Obama and Salazar are rapidly moving toward more balanced and environmentally sensitive energy programs and policies, including the promotion of solar energy. However, one point that tends to get overlooked is that the reason energy developers seek out these more remote federal lands, often in areas without current transmission capacity, is because public lands are incredibly cheap. This skews the economics and makes these remote areas more attractive. If private land owners and commercial businesses in or near existing developed areas would lower their prices to use their property or rooftops for solar/wind developments, then this could become more attractive because of reduced overall costs, including for new transmission lines and the energy lost in long transmission distances. If we were truly smart about this, most of the new solar and wind development would be closer to the end users, and we would not need to worry as much about the loss or fragmentation of more remote public lands. But I still greatly prefer the Obama/Salazar approach to what we had under Bush/Cheney/Kempthorne. Instead of moving backward, we are at least now moving forward.
Comment By Wind4me, 7-02-09Geothermal in Nevada is coming online and is 24/7 Green Base load power
My pick is Nevada Geothermal, bringing a 49MW power plant online early October 2009
NGLPF.ob
One advantage Nevada has is that there are not as many local zoning ordinances obstructing development of energy sources as other places.
Comment By Monty, 7-04-09In terms of new energy development, the future is unknowable. New more efficient solar panels--and other energy sources-- may reduce the amount of land required w/current technology.
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?
My own personal opinion, is that for sustainability and quality of life during the next 1 billion years, 1 billion human beings living on the planet at one time is enough. But the question is, "How do you get there from here?" Population growth without economic growth condemns many human beings to live in squalor and poverty. Its simple arithmetic. Just divide the National GDP of any country by the number of people living in that country. You get per capita GDP. And that number tells the tale of whether you are living in a third world country or not. In any case most of the wealthier nations' reproductive rate has dropped below replacement rate. People seem to breed like crazy when they are just peons, but when they become middle class they begin to realize that they can't afford having all those kids.
Comment By Todd, 7-05-09I suspect over consumption is a bigger problem or at least as big as over reproduction. Houses of 3, 4000 sf or more are common place in this day and age, so are multiple cars per household. Those Mickey refers to as peons are using much less of the worlds resources for their tiny homes, enough food to survive on instead of gobbling down tons of rich food.
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