SAN FRANCISCO — Federal officials on Friday approved a plan that sets aside 445 square miles of public land for the development of large-scale solar power plants, cementing a new government approach to renewable energy development in the West after years of delays and false starts.
At a news conference in Las Vegas, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar called the new plan a "roadmap ... that will lead to faster, smarter utility-scale solar development on public lands."
The plan replaces the department's previous first-come, first-served system of approving solar projects, which let developers choose where they wanted to build utility-scale solar sites and allowed for land speculation.
The department no longer will decide projects within the zones on a case-by-case basis as it had since 2005, when solar developers began filing applications. Instead, the department will direct development to land it has identified as having fewer wildlife and natural-resource obstacles.
The government is establishing 17 new "solar energy zones" on 285,000 acres in six states: California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico. More than half of the land — 153,627 acres — is in Southern California.
Interior also established 19 million acres — nearly 30,000 square miles — of so-called "variance zones" that will allow developers to propose solar projects in those areas. Environmental and other review of projects proposed in variance zones would be handled on a case-by-case basis.
The Obama administration has authorized 10,000 megawatts of solar, wind and geothermal projects that, when built, would provide enough energy to power more than 3.5 million homes, Salazar said.
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu said the effort will help the U.S. stay competitive.
"There is a global race to develop renewable energy technologies — and this effort will help us win this race by expanding solar energy production while reducing permitting costs," Chu said in a statement.
The new solar energy zones were chosen because they are near existing power lines, allowing for quick delivery to energy-hungry cities. Also, the chosen sites have fewer of the environmental concerns — such as endangered desert tortoise habitat — that have plagued other projects.
Environmental groups like the Nature Conservancy that had been critical of the federal government's previous approach to solar development in the desert applauded the new plan.
"We can develop the clean, renewable energy that is essential to our future while protecting our iconic desert landscapes by directing development to areas that are more degraded," said Michael Powelson, the conservancy's North American director of energy programs.
Some solar developers that already are building projects were complimentary of the new approach, saying it will help diversify the country's energy portfolio more quickly.
Still, some cautioned that the new plan could still get mired in the same pattern of delay and inefficiency that hampered previous efforts, and they urged the government to continue pushing solar projects forward.
"The Bureau of Land Management must ensure pending projects do not get bogged down in more bureaucratic processes," said Rhone Resch, president of the Solar Energy Industries Association.
Salazar said the country four years ago was importing 60 percent of its oil, and that number has dropped to 45 percent today.
"We can see the energy independence of the United States within our grasp," he said.
chatmandu002 posted at 10:26 am on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.
Spending more borrowed money on solar projects that will fail or cost us many times more than regular sources of energy. Over the fiscal cliff we go laughing all the way, ha ha ha.
It's time to let the Obamanation go. We need some reality, common sense and honesty back in government.
Ben Goren posted at 11:06 am on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.
chatmandu002, the thing is, we've basically run out of "regular" sources of energy.
Long gone are the days when you had to be careful with your shovel in Texas lest you set off a gusher. We're now getting our oil from rigs like Deepwater Horizon...which was a well deeper than Everest is tall with a wellhead farther below the surface of the ocean than Denver is above it.
We've used up about half the planet's petroleum -- and, of course, we've used up the cheap and easy-to-get-to half. Duh! What's left are the dregs, like the Canadian tar sands.
And those dregs aren't cheap, themselves. Indeed, it's actually cheaper -- significantly cheaper -- to generate electricity from photovoltaics than from tar sand oil. That doesn't mean that photovoltaics aren't expensive...but we don't have much of a choice left.
The days of cheap energy are over, whether we like it or not. It's time to switch to alternatives, whether we want to or not. And the clean alternatives are not only at least as affordable as the dirty ones, they're also far more plentiful. Cover every American residence with solar panels, and you could meet the total energy needs of everybody on the planet (not just the US).
Cheers,
b&
xyno posted at 2:04 pm on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.
When America wanted to develop the Space program, many older Americans said it was a waste of money and time. We must not let the old pharts dictate ideas, because, the old pharts, are out of touch with reality.
Ron S posted at 5:56 pm on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.
Well, I enjoyed the article and am a ardent supporter of alternative energy. However, the second to last sentence is not relevant to the article; in it Salazar voices a common misconception: He implies that the US generates electricity using oil, and that is not the case. Even if our oil imports did decline, which is certainly a good thing, it had nothing to do with the construction or operation of solar, wind, geothermal, or other alternative energy projects. Oil is used primarily for transportation, and secondarily for industry/manufacturing. There will be no correlation between alternative energy use and oil use until and if plug-in hybrids and electric cars become mainstream.
jimg17 posted at 8:10 pm on Sat, Oct 13, 2012.
Ben Goren, the thing is...until your idyllic "alternative" can pull a train or propel a plane it is nothing but leftist hot air. You see, the thing is, we all use petroleum, all day, everywhere. Whether you like it or not. We have been FORCED to search for petroleum in increasingly remote areas. NOT because it's all that's left to explore, it is all we are allowed to. I spent 19 years in the offshore gas and oil industry and worked in nearly all the worlds oceans. I can say with confidence, with true alternatives like clean nuclear, new and modernized refineries, continued strides in efficiency, access to our public land and coastlines the USA can look forward to centuries of clean, abundant power. Tragically the left must endure many more decades of tough men and women wearing boots, Carhartt jackets and operating heavy diesel equipment. Whether you like it, or not.
k33j88 posted at 5:58 am on Sun, Oct 14, 2012.
First and foremost, this is a AP(associated press) report, full of liberal, think-tank rhetoric. None of it can be realistically held as un-biased, factual, or un- tainted. As the intellectual, conservative among us can attest to, anything the "feds" control becomes a giant, burdensome, regulatory, tax-eating monster. Facts are skewed, projections altered, promises broken, all with the help of the positive spin brought to you by the liberal media establishment. Time to take our country back, re-establish State's Sovereignty rights, abolish the EPA, BLM, DHHS, DHS, and all other federal agencies not specifically allowed by our CONSTITUTION. Don't believe for a moment that our natural resources, oil, coal, gas, are limited to 100 years or less. Synthetic oil is here, the lifeblood of the world. Clean emitting coal-fired plants exist, and our safety record on nuclear power is second to none, The federal registry is well over 80,000 pages, effectively tying the hands of competitive capitalism-------not federal cronyism. Let us explore our own lands, reduce the hold on federal authority, and let the innovative, ingenuity of our most brilliant minds work their wonders.
k33j88 posted at 6:05 am on Sun, Oct 14, 2012.
In keeping with the politics fervor filling our airwaves-----I'm a Tea Party Patriot and I approve this message-----in accordance with the 80,000 page-plus federal register (leviathan).[wink]
chuckles3 posted at 3:42 pm on Mon, Oct 15, 2012.
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT? THE DESERT CACTUS SLUG HAS A RIGHT TO ITS HABITAT. KILL GREEDY BIG SOLAR.