It's Officially Daylight for Solar Energy Development in Six Southwestern U.S. States

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Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Companies committed to various sources of renewable energy are constantly fretting about the regulatory and legislative environment in which they hope to develop. Subsidies, parity of grid feed-in costs with traditional generating sources, and environmental ambiguities for green energy generation keep those companies awake at night and up early in the morning--just as the sun rises and the wind blows.

Now the solar power sector in the U.S. will receive clarity on areas permitted for solar energy development in six southwestern states from the Department of the Interior (DoI) in association with the Department of Energy (DoE).

This week's announcement on the publication of the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for solar energy development (in the six Southwestern states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah) represents a major step forward in the permitting of utility-scale solar energy on public lands throughout the west.

Since 2009, the DoI has approved 17 utility-scale solar energy projects. When these projects are completed, they will produce 5,900 megawatts. Now the PEIS will serve as a roadmap for solar energy development by establishing solar energy zones with access to existing planned transmission. The blueprint's comprehensive analysis will make for faster, better permitting of large-scale projects on public lands.

The PEIS planning effort has focused on identifying locations in the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) lands that are most suitable for solar energy development. In support of more detailed system-level analysis of transmission needs, the BLM is engaged in ongoing transmission planning efforts. These efforts include going through the Transmission Expansion Planning Policy Committee and Western Electricity Coordination Council's transmission study.

The PEIS establishes 17 solar energy zones on 285,000 acres across the six states. It includes strong incentives for development of well-sited projects on about 19 million acres outside the zones. It also protects natural and cultural resources by excluding 78 million acres from solar energy development.

A process is outlined for industry, the public and other interested stakeholders to propose new or expanded zones. Efforts under way include: California's Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan and the West Chocolate Mountains Renewable Energy Evaluation, Arizona's Restoration Energy Design Project, and other local planning efforts in Nevada and Colorado.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR), with global headquarters in Sugar Land, Texas, and eight offices outside of North America, is the leading provider of global market intelligence specializing in the industrial process, heavy manufacturing and energy markets. Industrial Info's quality-assurance philosophy, the Living Forward Reporting Principle™, provides up-to-the-minute intelligence on what's happening now, while constantly keeping track of future opportunities.