Renewable Zones Inch Forward

Location: New York
Author: Bill Opalka
Date: Monday, December 12, 2011

The latest iteration of solar areas on public lands is smaller than previously devised but promises to be more quickly made available for development.  Is this the policy solution to the opening of large tracts of public lands in the West for solar development?
The proposed solution has been undergoing review for a year, with all sides seemingly finding something to be unhappy about.
The U.S. Department of Interior just released its Supplement to the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Solar Energy Development (Solar PEIS) that was first proposed a year ago. That’s a long-winded way of defining areas for solar projects on thousands of square miles under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar just released a supplement to the federal plan to facilitate utility-scale solar development on public lands in six western states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
“Our partners in this effort have suggested ways to strengthen the proposed solar energy program and increase certainty regarding solar energy development on public lands,” Salazar said. “This Solar PEIS establishes for the first time a blueprint for landscape-level planning that will help facilitate smarter siting of solar energy projects.”
The proposal claims to offer developers what they want, with greater certainty and shorter permitting times always high on their lists.
Some segments of the industry think the new designation may be too restrictive. Mainstream environmental organizations say this strikes a balance b promoting clean energy development without sacrificing sensitive habitat.
“There’s enough room on our nation’s public lands both to produce renewable energy and conserve our wildlife heritage if we are “smart from the start” in planning our clean energy future,” said Jim Lyons, senior director for renewable energy with Defenders of Wildlife.
“While we are still reviewing all of the details in this proposal, there are some significant areas of concern regarding the viability of a solar-energy zone approach,” said Rhone Resch, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “Siting flexibility and access to transmission are key to the financing and development of utility-scale solar power plants. Both aspects must be reflected in the final PEIS.”
Interior says the proposal presents a more complete description of the process for identifying zones, including an analysis of transmission availability and potential resource conflicts.
And the review process the potential areas were reduced to 17 solar energy zones, totaling about 285,000 acres potentially available for development within the zones. A previous version called for 667,000 acres over 24 zones. The BLM said it refined or removed zones that had development constraints or serious resource conflicts.
The modified preferred alternative also establishes a variance process, going forward, that will allow development of well-sited projects outside of solar energy zones on an additional 20 million acres of public land.   
The 90-day comment period on the rule is about a month old, and will culminate in a final document. It appears that the industry will have more to say before the solar zones become a reality.

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