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The Heartbreaking Demise of Southwestern Solar Power

The Bureau of Land Management said it will suspend all new solar energy projects on federal land for the next two years until it completes an environmental impact review. As discussed briefly in the preceding post, the BLM holds the country’s most valuable sites in terms of solar energy potential, which are heavily concentrated in the southwest. The federal government owns roughly 650 million acres of land - nearly 30% of its total territory. The vast majority of those lands are located in the Western states and the vast majority of federal lands in the Western states are owned by the Bureau of Land Management. Here’s a state by state breakdown of government land ownership.

Federally Owned Land in Western States

1. Nevada 84.5%
2. Alaska 69.1%
3. Utah 57.4%
4. Oregon 53.1%
5. Idaho 50.2%
6. Arizona 48.1%
7. California 45.3%
8. Wyoming 42.3%
9. New Mexico 41.8%
10. Colorado 36.6%

Related Post: Maps of BLM-Owned Lands in southwestern U.S.

The BLM’s drastic decision to suspend solar power projects on federal lands will derail the still embryonic industry at a critical phase of growth. More specifically, the moratorium will sabotage a concerted efforts by the Western Governor’s Association to bring 4,000 MW of distributed solar energy online by 2015. In a document attached below, the WGA summarized their goal in these terms:

Conclusion: Distributed Solar Can Contribute 4,000 MW of Generation and 2GWth of Solar Thermal Power by 2015 — With these programs implemented throughout the region over the next few years, we estimate that distributed PV solar can contribute 4,000 MW of the Governor’s objective of 30,000 MW of clean, diversified energy. In addition, 500,000 solar thermal systems could be installed, providing the equivalent of 2GWth of energy and saving 15 billion cubic feet of natural gas per year.

The investment money, political support and high energy prices needed to introduce a massive change like distributed solar energy is available now but might not be in two years. The BLM controls both key transmission lines that will effectively keep solar off the grid until the moratorium expires. In addition, the sheer volume of land owned by the BLM means that the solar power projects needed to meet the 4,000 MW target won’t be available. Currently, the American southwest is the only place where the U.S. can realistically sustain a solar energy on a mass scale. By barring its emergence, the BLM might have struck the industry with a lethal blow today.