31,000 MW of Solar Potential Identified by Dept. of Interior and BLM

 

The Department of the Interior, working with the Bureau of Land Management and the Department of Energy have identified solar energy development potential in six  Western states in seventeen different areas.

These areas are:

  • Arizona 663 MW — Brenda and Gillespie
  • California 17,070 MW — Imperial East and Riverside East
  • Colorado 1812 MW — Antonito Southeast, De Tilla Gulch
  • Fourmile East, Los Mogotes East
  • Nevada 6711 MW — Amargosa Valley, Dry Lake, Gold Point, Millers
  • New Mexico 3329 MW — Afton
  • Utah 2973 MW — Escalante Valley, Milford Flats South, Wah Wah Valley

These locations, or solar energy zones, are on 285,000 acres of public lands. Certain places are excluded from consideration as solar energy sites, such as those where endangered and sensitive species live.

“This blueprint for landscape-level planning is about facilitating faster, smarter utility-scale solar development on America’s public lands. This is a key milestone in building a sustainable foundation for utility-scale solar energy development and conservation on public lands over the next two decades,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. (Source: Dept. of the Interior)

An advisor to the Sonoran Institute said he thought the government agencies could have identified even more solar energy zones.

The full text of the Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement is available in PDF format, with an executive summary and various chapters.

Image Credit: Public Domain, Wiki Commons

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