Interior Releases 285,000 Acres For Solar Power Development

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced July 24 that the Obama administration has approved 17 tracts of federal lands in six western states for development of commercial scale solar power projects, streamlining the process of environmental review for developers seeking to site solar power plants on these federal properties. California has 153,627 approved acres, Nevada has 60,395 acres, New Mexico has 29,964 acres, Utah has 18,658 acres, Colorado has 16,308 acres, and Arizona has 6,465 acres. Salazar described the plan as “a roadmap for solar development for decades to come.”

Solar Energy Industries Association President Rhone Resch said the plan is a “detailed environmental analysis that will dramatically speed the permitting process.” Environmental groups also responded favorably to the announcement. “This is a huge step forward for the Bureau of Land Management,” said National Wildlife Federation’s Policy Director for Public Lands Kate Zimmerman. Helen O’Shea of the National Resources Defense Council echoed Zimmerman’s praise for the plan. “This is a really big milestone in terms of environmentally sensitive and responsible development.”

Salazar’s Interior Department has already approved 17 utility scale solar power projects which will produce electricity to power 1.7 million homes when completed. He predicts that solar power developments on federal lands could eventually generate enough energy for 7 million homes.

Pricing Cuts Promote Commercial Scale Solar Power Development

According to panelists at the 12th Annual Electric Power Conference and Exhibition in Baltimore this week, decreasing material and construction costs of commercial scale photovoltaic power plants [PV] and thermoelectric solar power production facilities [CSP/CST] are promoting commercial scale solar power production developments in climates where sunlight is available most of the year to “fuel” such facilities. Leo Casey, Vice President and Chief Technical Officer of Satcom Technology Corp. in Boston told attendees that utility scale installation cost for PV facilities has dropped from $5 per watt to $4 per watt already, and he expects future pricing cuts down to the level of $1 per watt for solar panels and $1.50 per watt for construction cost, or a total of as little as $2.50 per watt of installed capacity. According to William Bettenberg of Applied Materials, Inc., more and more utility companies are embracing PV technology, with 485 megawatts of PV generating capacity installed last year.

Bob McDonald of Skyline Solar, Inc., echoed the same theme regarding CSP/CST solar power production facilities. McDonald cited both reduced module cost and improved installation expense as contributing to an improved position for commercial scale solar thermal power generation, particularly since the stored heat involved in the CSP/T process makes such production facilities especially useful as load following power generation facilities, rapidly becoming less expensive to build than other types of “peaker” generating units.

Waxman Threatens Subcommittee Leapfrog To Speed Energy Policy Bill

Though Democrat members of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee spent an hour in the Oval Office with President Obama Tuesday trying to iron out regional energy policy differences, Chairman Henry Waxman says he may skip over the subcommittee and take the legislation directly to the entire Energy and Commerce Committee for a markup next week. "I'm still holding firm on my deadline of getting a bill out of the committee by the end of May," Waxman said, "and I believe that will probably require us to go right to the full committee and bypass the subcommittee." Waxman would not commit to a deadline for releasing the pre-markup text of the bill, entitled American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

Congressman Rick Boucher of Virginia, who attended the meeting of subcommittee members with President Obama, Vice President Biden, National Economic Council Chairman Larry Summers and White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, said compromise among various factions is still needed on the time schedule for CO2 emissions reduction, allocation of carbon cap and trade credits, wind and solar power mandates, and identification of activities which can be used to offset emission reduction requirements. Speaking on the depth of state to state differences on such issues, Boucher emphasized the need for regional balance so as not to disadvantage states which rely heavily on coal, oil and gas fired power production.

Describing the meeting with President Obama, Congressman Jay Inslee of Washington said the President "told us sometimes we do things of real impact, and none of us would want to look back in twenty to thirty years and think we had punted on something of a historic nature."

Texas Senate Enacts Solar Energy Incentives

By a vote of 26-4 the Texas senate has passed and sent over to the Texas House a bill providing $500 million in energy rebates to encourage homeowners and business owners to install solar panels. The funds will come from a 20 cent monthly tax on homeowner electric bills, $2 monthly on commercial business owners, and $20 monthly on industrial power users.