THE TROUBLE WITH SOLAR ENERGY ZONES

'Solar Energy Zone' Concept Laudable but Flawed, Critics Say
Scott Streater, July 9, 2009 (NY Times)

SUMMARY
By creating Solar Energy Study Areas, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) may have opened enormous opportunities for all the New Energies. 675,000 acres of study areas were created in six Western states by a directive from Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar June 28.

Without a doubt, there is an astonishing abundance of solar energy to be developed on lands under federal jurisdiction. DOI estimates it could be 100,000 megawatts, enough to provide electricity for millions, possibly hundreds of millions. But there is also a bonanza of wind, geothermal and biomass to be harvested. Leaders in those industries want similar programs to support their development.

DOI has no plans to do similar studies for the other New Energies, despite extensive and detailed Programmatic Environmental Impact Studies (PEISs) previously done for wind (2005) and geothermal (2008).

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The Wilderness Society and other environmental groups say DOI is missing a big opportunity by failing to undertake the same effort on behalf of the other New Energies because such preliminary work would not only rule in the right areas for development but also rule out the wrong places.

Billions of federal dollars are slowly being put to work to develop solar power plants, wind installations and geothermal drilling sites on BLM and Forest Service DOI lands. 34 applications for solar power plant projects in the Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah solar study zones are under DOI review. Secretary Salazar says there will be at least 13 utility-scale solar plants under construction in the study areas by the end of 2010.

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While some environmentalists are happy to see the groundwork being laid for New Energy development, some are not.

A point of contention within one of the solar study areas is the 110,000-acres around Iron Mountain on BLM land between Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve in Southern California. Evironmental advocates Defenders of Wildlife contend that that because the Iron Mountain area is not linked to any existing transmission, the building of utility-scale solar power plants and new transmission would fragment much wildlife habitat there.

Seeing this controvery as exactly the kind of dispute that blocked Southern California's Sunrise Powerlink transmission system and prevented for years a 1,300-megawatt San Diego Gas & Electric solar power plant installation, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) supports the DOI-designated study areas as a way to avoid such logjams.

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The study areas are a generally popular concept with policy makers, planners and developers. As with the very successful Competitive Renewable Energy Zones (CREZs) Texas has used to facilitate the building of its U.S.-leading wind capacity, the pre-designation of areas where development can proceed is expected to make preparation of projects easier. It also allows concerned groups to object in advance instead of impeding construction at a much greater cost to developers.

In the case of the impetus generated by the current administration’s enormous commitment to New Energy, pre-studied and designated development areas could be vital to avoiding the ravages of too much hurry.

The danger of pre-designating New Energy zones too quickly, some environmentalists say, is exemplified by the way the newly announced DOI plan all but puts a “bull’s eye” on the fragile habitat of California’s Mojave Desert. Solar power plant developers and transmission builders can’t wait to get at the millions of acres of undeveloped federal lands that get little rain and almost uninterrupted sun the year-round.

Desert tortoise. (click to enlarge)

But the Mojave is desert tortoise habitat and DOI has spent ~$100 million over the last 10 years to protect the desert tortoise. It is also the land of many sensitive plant species like the Rusby's desert-mallow, the cave evening primrose and the Mojave milkweed.

Sooner or later, there will need to be a decision in favor of solar energy or turtles and flowers. Environmentalists would like to see that decision come just a little later than those in a mighty rush to build solar power plants and new transmission lines.

Rusby's desert-mallow. (click to enlarge)

In an attempt to postpone that moment of decision, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked DOI to set aside 1 million acres of California desert and will bring legislation to protect 600,000 acres of precious habitat.

The Wilderness Society says about 2% of the nearly 700,000 acres of the solar energy study areas has been agreed by environmentalists to be untouchable. The rest of it is likely to go unprotected and be laid open to New Energy development, barring other action. The Wilderness Society, therefore, wants DOI to site solar power plants near already-developed areas until whatever efforts at protective action have been ruled on.

Mojave milkweed. (click to enlarge)

The first concrete step to move the process ahead will be the opening of 4 DOI Renewable Energy Coordination Offices – in Nevada, Arizona, California and Wyoming – to expedite permitting for New Energy projects in the solar study areas and elsewhere.

COMMENTARY
Approval for solar power plants on Western federal lands is going too slow for some and too fast for others. It is worth noting that BLM has approved 7,000 oil and gas drilling applications since 2007 but not 1 solar project. BLM now has a 199-solar project application waiting list, some filed as long ago as 2005. That is the record of the Bush administration.

Environmentalists are finding it difficult to effectively develop opposition to the Obama administration’s efforts to push solar projects ahead. They are not fighting Old Energy projects that dig and drill and spew to get at things to burn. They are resisting locally the development of the raw materials for a national New Energy economy, a key to the fight against global climate change.

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There is a clash, however, between grassroots environmental activists and Washington-based environmental attorney-lobbyists on this issue that reflects a schism observed in many energy battles under the new President. The nation needs New Energy but it needs it in very large quantities and harvesting large quantities of any kind of energy has impacts.

Those closest to the impacts object to them most. Those farthest from the impacts are inclined to see the inevitability of local sacrifices for the global good.

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Pre-planning has been very successful in the development of Texas wind, it has been incorporated in the New Energy action plan of the Western Governors Association (see GOVERNORS TALK NEW ENERGY) and it was urgently called for in a proposal this past spring from NRDC and the National Audubon Society (seeNEW ENERGY FIGHTS MAPPED) that mapped 13 western states by their New Energy resources and the regions that most need protecting.

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The big challenge has yet to be confronted. Only a limited amount of the enormous solar energy potential on Western federal lands is of any value without new transmission to deliver the solar energy-generated electricity to demand centers in populous cities. Getting the rights of way, permissions and clearances to build new transmission is infinitely more complicated than obtaining DOI approval for power plants on circumscribed sectors of the desert.

The problem of transmission presents a real dilemma. The adage says “think globally, act locally," but what if the thoughts are contradictory?

QUOTES
- Kim Delfino, California program director, Defenders of Wildlife: "We do not want to see development [in the 110,000-acre Iron Mountain solar study zone between Joshua Tree National Park and Mojave National Preserve]…We don't like that zone at all."
- Helen O'Shea, policy associate, Natural Resources Defense Council: "This announcement signals the Department of the Interior's commitment to proactively finding appropriate places for solar energy development on public lands based on stakeholder input and taking into account environmental impacts…"

Solar power plant technologies. (click to enlarge)

- Alex Daue, New Energy coordinator, the Wilderness Society: "The BLM didn't prioritize [sites] in the geothermal evaluation process, they just opened up 190 million acres and said, 'Go where you will' … But this identification of study areas for solar development is really the kind of prioritizing we'd love to see them come back and do for all energy development, including geothermal and wind."
- Ileene Anderson, director of the public lands desert program, Center for Biological Diversity: "…there are going to be conflicts with endangered species…There's really no place in this region that is completely bulletproof except for already disturbed lands…But by concentrating them in certain areas, you decrease the need for power lines going everywhere across the desert."
- Monique Hanis, spokeswoman,Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA): "There's been a lack of a plan, a lack of a process and probably lack of focused resources to date on this issue…[ Renewable Energy Coordination Offices are] the first step in breaking the bureaucratic logjam…"