EGN NEWS DESK
“We’re thrilled to see that this undertaking has been permitted,” Heather Reams, govt director of the nonprofit Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, informed Canary Media. “In Nevada, the place the solar shines a entire lot, it’s nice to harness that power and use it for conserving the lights on,” she mentioned, including that finding initiatives on public land is important for Nevada as a result of a lot of the state’s land — greater than 80 p.c — is federally owned.
The Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Western Solar Plan, launched Thursday, is supposed to strike a steadiness between preserving public lands and streamlining the allowing course of for photo voltaic.
The proposed plan applies to most federal land in California and all federal land in 10 different Western states, together with Nevada. If enacted, it might bar photo voltaic improvement on 131 million acres of public land and go away greater than 31 million acres open to improvement. A 30-day public remark interval has began for BLM to assemble enter on the plan earlier than issuing a closing determination.
The plan prohibits photo voltaic improvement on BLM land that’s greater than 15 miles from present or deliberate transmission traces, besides if the proposed photo voltaic facility can be positioned in an space that has been designated as “beforehand disturbed,” corresponding to an outdated mining website. Within the 15-mile radius of transmission traces, sure exclusions should prohibit photo voltaic from being constructed, corresponding to if the realm is designated for recreation or conservation or as an endangered species habitat.
The steps within the allowing course of stay the identical, however by clearly defining the place photo voltaic is and isn’t allowed, BLM hopes to hurry up preliminary evaluations. The company can also be updating recommended design options that make initiatives extra amenable to the surroundings, which, if utilized by builders, might make for simpler approval.
The proposed plan has garnered combined reactions from the business. In a assertion, the clear power commerce group American Clean Power Association praised the up to date design options however mentioned it’s “involved” that many areas are excluded the place photo voltaic may very well be constructed “in methods appropriate with useful resource safety.”
The affiliation said its intent to work with the company to “scale back pointless regulatory hurdles that hamper improvement of fresh power sources on public lands.”
For its half, the Dry Lake East Energy Center is about to be constructed on greater than 1,000 acres inside a zone that BLM has already designated for photo voltaic power. There are different photo voltaic installations, a gas-fired energy plant, and a substation close by to attach energy to the grid.
Still, the opposition confronted at even this location exhibits the fragile steadiness between improvement and conservation that constructing clear power on public lands would require.
