Solar power heats up. Government freezes projects.
With the cost of fuels and the environmental toll of traditional carbon-based sources of electricity generation quickly climbing, solar power in America has become so popular that the government has placed a moratorium on the building of any such projects on Western public land. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), has decided to initiate a programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) in conjunction with the Department of Energy (DOE) to assess the "environmental, social, and economic impacts" that solar installations could have on some of the 119 million acres that it manages in six Western states. While the PEIS is being conducted, no new applications for solar plants will be accepted and the 125 applications already received - which could generate up to 70 billion watts or enough power for 20 million homes - will be the object of their scrutiny. All this effort is being undertaken to, ahem, "increase domestic energy production and ensure greater energy security." According to the New York Times, the PEIS could take two years.
Those folks hoping that the electricity they feed into their Chevy Volts and Apteras in the coming years would be supplied by increasingly carbon-free energy sources may take heart that their voices have not been left out of this process. Comments from the public are encouraged at the Solar Energy Development Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Solar Energy Development PEIS) website. Of course, we also appreciate your comments as well.
[Source: New York Times]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
George W. Bush 3:45PM (6/30/2008)
You make it sound so bad. We're just doing our patriotic duty to protect American jobs. If everyone had solar power all my friends in the oil business would be unemployed and next thing you know they'd be runnin' for congress or somethin'. Then there's the environment, yeah--that's the ticket. We're protectin' the environment.
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Mike Z 3:47PM (6/30/2008)
Sorry, a little off topic for the blog. Good story, but off topic. Considering the inaccurate report on the McCain story, you need to keep your noise to the grid stone to car stories.
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Tim 4:04PM (6/30/2008)
"we're from the Government and we're here to help you."
Be afraid... be VERY afraid!
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aimless 4:09PM (6/30/2008)
If those numbers are real, then I can understand the worries the bean counters have.
70 Gigawatt's of solar is a huge liability. That's like all the power generation in Arizona, Nevada and California going off line, when a single cloud drifts into the Mojave desert.
Molten salt plant's can keep on producing for a few hours, until the nukes are spinned up. But large amounts of PV parks would cause huge brownouts.
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Hank 4:16PM (6/30/2008)
Most important phrase: "on public lands".
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Nick 5:59PM (6/30/2008)
The few comments posted on this blog are a reflection of America's lack of education on green issues. Watching biased news channels every day, it is no surprise to read comments such as "But large amounts of PV parks would cause huge brownouts." "70 Gigawatt's of solar is a huge liability". As if the solar industry didn't consider bad weather.
This government is corrupt and after special interests more than the well being and wealth of its own citizens.
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EVan 5:00PM (6/30/2008)
This moratorium is absurd and totally bereft of reason.
Environmentalists are often quick to assume big business collaboration/conspiracy when situations like this arise but in this case it seems totally warranted.
The institutions that have the most to gain from solar are smaller, newer, less politically connected companies while the companies with the most to gain are the older, much larger, heavy lobbying companies.
It is just to easy to assume that natural gas, coal, and most of all nuclear power companies would be encouraging this action.
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EVan 5:12PM (6/30/2008)
@ Hank
"On public lands" indeed. The Government is by far the majority owner of the prime pieces of real estate for utility scale solar projects.
119 million acres... we're talking almost 20% more land than the entire state of California (101 million acres). On top of that most of this land is in the desert, which is where solar power generation is most effective.
This could ultimately be a death nail for a number of startups with out strong financial backing or those dependent on the lower lease rates available from public land.
In the rapidly growing renewable energy industry 2 years is just too long to wait while wind and nuclear gobble up all of the renewable energy investment.
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Unknown 5:25PM (6/30/2008)
I can't build a dirt road with out a EIS Did you think the goverment would let these projects go foward with out any EIS just because you think it should? because it's solar?
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EV-1 6:07PM (6/30/2008)
This is ON Topic.
We repeatedly get pestered by "sceptics" about the supply of electricity for those energy-gobbling EVs to come.
( Serious studies show that many countries actually already HAVE sufficient electrical power capacity in their infrastructure to handle the whole private sector of transportation , was it converted to electric motors. )
- - - - -
This is so obvious it's silly.
This is what I've been talking about :
THEY'LL TRY EV'RY TRICK IN THE BOOK ( and some that aren't in the book ) TO KEEP US FORCED TO PAY THEIR OIL.
Ugly. And getting worse.
( How long before they'll start killing civilians at home , just because we have other ideas ? )
.
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Serge 6:19PM (6/30/2008)
The knee-jerk reaction is premature and unwarranted. And, Domenick, the title is a bit misleading:
1. The moratorium is on all *new* applications for solar projects on *public* land.
2. All currently filed applications (over 130) *will be* processed.
The position taken by BLM makes a lot of sense: do a wide-scale EIS to develop a standard against which all new project applications can be evaluated. This is a more efficient system that reviewing applications on a case-by-case basis applying disparate standards.
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mdf 6:26PM (6/30/2008)
No question this is a massive case of successophobia.
All forms of energy production need to be given an equal chance. Wind, solar, nuke, hamster wheels, whatever it takes.
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Ben Brown 10:36PM (6/30/2008)
Hmm... we are asked to fund going into Iran and no one questions the president... Someone says lets do solar and like the EV-1 it shows signs of success and a "temporary" moratorium is called to 1st assure "perfection" from this potentially dangerous technology that could what?... cripple or destroy the lives of thousands of our sons and daughters and their children? (Opps got that one mixed up with the war...) Yep solar energy, got to nip that danger in the bud... in the meantime lets send your daughter to be maimed and raped.
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dejal 7:38AM (7/01/2008)
#8 It's not just roads. It's powerlines (in many cases BIG power lines) because you have to get the power from here to there, fences, foundations, buildings, wells,
sewage, oil storage tanks, etc...
How big is the fence? What would live on each side of the fence? Does the fence stop something migrating?
If a footings have to be built for the solar arrays, how far down do they have to go? Is there a frost line? Who is going to verify that the footings are big enough, deep enough to handle the array.
What is the plan for power lines falling down in isolated areas due to high winds and bad weather?
You can't just build a solar farm somewhere without support facilities. The more middle of nowhere the solar farm is the more onsite support you are going to need.
Just because something is "Solar" doesn't make it righteous.
Some of the plans probably don't have adequite funding. Some of the plans could be scams.
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greg woulf 8:23AM (7/01/2008)
Dejal, they had to submit plans, it wasn't just open the land and let people in with every crackpot solar plan.
The safety requirements and environmental impact requirements existed.
This is a total moratorium while the government beauracrats set up committees so that they can get more money.
Pure BS that we have to pay for.
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Noah 11:21AM (7/01/2008)
I'm all for solar, but this... is a kind of a good idea. Kind of like testing nano-structures for health problems (can cause cancer!), we need to study how massive solar farms will affect the environment.
I think a 2-year moratorium is a bit much, i don't think that 100 million acres of solar panels can be built in that amount of time. But after 2 years, we can make sure its safe for desert environments.
On the downside, say I'm hiking in the deserts of southern or eastern Oregon, I don't want solar panels everywhere i look. The desert can be a beautiful place, lets place these solar plants carefully.
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