BILLINGS, Mont. BILLINGS, Mont. — Tuesday’s approval by the United States of two large-scale solar energy projects in California was announced. The administration is also moving to open public lands in Western states for potential solar power development as part of its efforts to combat climate change and shift from fossil fuels.
The Victory Pass and Arica solar projects were approved by the Interior Department on federal land in Riverside County east Los Angeles. Clearway Energy, a San Francisco-based developer, estimates that the combined power would produce 465 megawatts, which is enough to power approximately 132,000 homes. Officials said approval of the third solar farm, which is planned to produce 500 megawatts, was expected within days.
The Interior Department issued Tuesday a call for land nominations in “solar energy zone” areas of New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado. These zones cover approximately 140 square miles (360 km) combined.
Officials under Democratic President Joe Biden encourage renewable wind and solar power both on public lands as well offshore, in an effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions that are increasing the world’s temperature. This is a marked departure from Republican President Donald Trump’s focus on coal mining and oil-and gas drilling.
Biden was dealt a major blow by West Virginia Democrat Senator Joe Manchin, who voted against the administration’s key climate and social service legislation. After a federal judge sided in favor of Republican-led states who sued Biden for suspending the sales, the administration was forced to resume oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland didn’t directly address reporters’ questions during a Tuesday conference call. Instead, she pointed out clean energy provisions in last month’s bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Haaland stated that “we fully intend to achieve our clean energy goals.” She claimed that the Trump administration had stalled clean-energy by closing the Bureau of Land Management’s renewable energy offices and by destroying long-term agreements such as the conservation plan for solar development in California’s desert.
Haaland stated, “We are rebuilding this capacity.”
Xiaojing, the head of solar research at Wood Mackenzie, stated that tax incentives for large-scale solar would drop to 10 per cent of a developer’s total capital costs in 2024 without the climate bill. This will instead of increasing to 30 percent.
She stated that incentives for residential-scale solar would be eliminated completely by 2024.
Sun stated that it would significantly slow down solar’s growth.
She said that streamlining federal land access could be a benefit to the industry as large solar farms located on non-federal land face increasing opposition from local authorities and complicated zoning laws.
The Bureau of Land Management manages nearly a quarter-billion acres of land, mostly in the West. Tracy-Stone Manning, director of the agency, stated that promoting renewable energy is one of their top priorities.
She said that forty large-scale solar projects in the West are being considered.
In December, the agency released a draft plan that would reduce rents and other fees for companies authorized to construct wind and solar projects on public land. Officials could not estimate how much developers could be saved by this plan.
Nevada is home to more than 80% federally owned and managed land. Large-scale solar projects in Nevada have been opposed by environmentalists who are concerned about the effects on plants and animals living in deserts.
Because of concerns raised by local residents, developers abandoned plans to build the nation’s largest solar panel system earlier this year. Another solar project is being opposed by environmentalists near Nevada-California borders. They claim it could cause harm to birds and desert tortoises.
Stone-Manning stated that solar projects on public land are being planned to consider environmental concerns.
The Obama administration proposed the first solar development zones. In 2012, plans were adopted to bring utility-scale solar energy plants to public lands in Arizona and California. Officials have identified nearly 1,400 square miles (3.500 km) of public land that could be leased for solar power.
The bureau estimates that all of this land could be developed to produce more than 100 gigawatts solar power. This would provide enough energy for 29 million homes.
This is almost equivalent to all U.S. Solar capacity currently in place.
Federal data shows that the power generation capacity of solar farms on federal lands is just a fraction of this amount, at just over 3 gigawatts.
The land bureau granted solar leases in November for land in Utah’s Milford Flats Solar Zone. The end of November will see the finalization of solar leases for land in several locations in Arizona.
In 2020, about 3 percent of the total U.S. electricity was produced by solar power on both public and private land. This figure has dropped sharply in the last decade as construction costs have fallen. It is projected to rise to over 20 percent by 2050 according to U.S Energy Information Administration projects.
Developers say rising costs are due to shortages of steel and semiconductor chips.
