MORE IMPEDIMENTS TO SOLAR FROM BUSH ADMIN

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has placed a moratorium on the building of new solar power plant installations on federal lands until it can make a more accurate assessment of environmental impacts. Interestingly, this is the same strategy Russia is using to slow oil development in eastern Siberia and in the Caspian.

Precious lands must and should be protected, there is no doubt about it. Have the Russian efforts protected their environment from the ravages of oil exploration? Not at all. In every case of which NewEnergyNews is aware, drilling has sooner or later proceeded, often with little in the way of environmental protections.

The delays only served one purpose: They cost the foreign oil companies who wanted to drill so much they were forced to either sell out to Russian companies or make big give-away deals bringing Russian companies into new, profit-sharing consortia.

Coming in the wake of the current administration’s failure to do anything to save vital New Energy incentives like the investment tax credits (ITCs) and the production tax credits (PTCs) from expiration at the end of 2008, this BLM decision to delay is likely to deal a powerfully harmful blow to solar power plant developers. They are extremely frustrated.

Holly Gordon, VP, solar power plant developer Ausra: “It doesn’t make any sense…The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry.”

It makes perfect sense and you know it, Holly. A delay in the development of solar power plants means extended reliance on natural gas. Agencies like the BLM get their marching orders from the people in the White House who appoint them.

Solar power plant advocates are enthusiastic about an environmental impact study but object to the moratorium on development while it is being done.

Environmental groups are beginning to weigh in on the decision. They are caught between a rock and a hard place or, to be more precise, between potential local harmful impacts and devastating global impacts.

Craig Cox, executive director, Interwest Energy Alliance: “I think it’s good to have a plan…but I don’t think we need to stop development in its tracks.”

Solar power plant primer: There are 2 basic types, photovoltaic (using the familiar rooftop PV panels to turn sunlight into electricity) and concentrating technologies (using mirrors to focus heat to boil water to create steam to drive turbines that generate electricity).

Click through to DOE EIS site.

Citing Need for Assessments, U.S. Freezes Solar Energy Projects
Dan Frosch, June 27, 2008 (NY Times)

WHO
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM)

WHAT
The BLM has placed a moratorium on all solar power plant development on federally managed lands until it completes an environmental impact study (EIS) on the concentrating solar and photovoltaic large-scale technologies.

Click through to DOE EIS site.

WHEN
- Since 2005: 130 proposals for solar power plants filed with the BLM.
- 2007: PV projects up 48% over 2006 in the U.S.

WHERE
BLM land: 119 millions of acres in 6 Western states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

WHY
- The land now under moratorium holds some of the most perfect solar power plant sites in North America.
- Pending applications would lease 1 million acres and potentially power 20 million homes.
- 11 concentrating solar power plants are operational in the U.S. and 20 are in process.
- BLM considerations: impact of construction and transmission lines on native vegetation and wildlife (ex: the desert tortoise, the Mojave ground squirrel); potential to restore the land if the solar plant abandons the lease; water use

Click through to DOE EIS site.

QUOTES
- Linda Resseguie, environmental impact study manager, BLM: “Reclamation is another big issue…These plants potentially have a 20- to 30-year life span. How to restore that land is a big question for us.”
- Ray Brady, energy policy manager, BLM: “[An environmental impact study will] ensure that we are doing an adequate level of analysis of the impacts.”
- Lee Wallach, power plant pioneer and developer Solel: “The problem is that this is a very young industry, and the majority of us that are involved are young, struggling, hungry companies…This is a setback.”