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DOI Approves Renewable Energy Projects and Identifies Next Step in Solar Development by Staff Clean Edge News, July 29, 2011

Advancing the Obama Administration's commitment to development of large-scale renewable energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced the approval of four new projects on public lands, the launch of environmental reviews on three others, and the next step in an environmental analysis to identify 'solar energy zones' on public lands in six western states.

The renewable energy projects that Salazar announced - two utility- scale solar developments in California, a wind energy project in Oregon, and a transmission line in Southern California - together are estimated to create more than 1,300 construction jobs, provide a combined 550 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 185,000 to 380,000 homes, and generate several million dollars annually in local government tax revenues. In addition, Interior's Bureau of Land Management has issued Notices of Intent to begin environmental analyses of two wind projects and a solar energy project located in California with a combined generating capacity of more than 370 megawatts.

Salazar also announced that the Interior Department, in cooperation with the Department of Energy, will prepare a targeted supplement to the Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for Solar Energy Development (Solar PEIS). First released for public review in December, 2010, the Solar PEIS will establish a framework for developing large utility-scale solar energy projects on public lands, based on landscape-level planning and the best available science, designed to promote the development in "solar energy zones" in six western states.

The supplement will address issues identified through public comments and potentially provide a number of enhancements, including developing well defined criteria for identifying solar energy zones; incentives for encouraging developers to site their projects in the zones and a variance process for those who wish to develop facilities outside such zones; additional surveys of biological and cultural resources in the zones; and a more detailed analysis of transmission.

No new solar energy zones will be analyzed in the supplemental document, but additional zones will be analyzed through other ongoing BLM state and regional planning efforts, such as the California Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, the West Chocolate Mountains planning effort in California, and the Arizona Restoration Design Energy Project. Through the Solar PEIS supplement, Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would review the establishment of Solar Energy Zones within the lands available for solar development right of way applications. These are areas in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah that have been identified as most appropriate for development, containing the highest solar energy potential and fewest environmental and resource conflicts. The BLM will prepare the supplement for expected release in the fall of 2011 when it will be available for further public comment.