Focus
When harrow met solar: U.S. land-use competition heats up
■Reuters - January 28
Installed solar capacity in the U.S. last year reached 60 gigawatts, up from about 9 gigawatts a decade ago, according to the Solar Energy Industries Association, with capacity expected to more than double in the next five years. Under a scenario that sees solar reach 1,618 gigawatts by 2050, the government estimates a total of 6.6 million acres of land will be required by 2050. States are taking different approaches to the competition for land. Last year, Massachusetts began a program to push farmers and the solar industry to work together. Others are looking to avoid competition over land use by targeting landfill and other degraded areas. In Nevada, authorities in 2018 amended state law to include solar development as a valid use for former mine lands. According to a 2015 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency report, the country has more than 80,000 degraded sites comprising more than 43 million acres, far more than would be needed by 2050, which could in theory generate 6,700 gigawatts annually.
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News
Temporary rules restrict Oregon solar development
■Capital Press - January 28
Oregon’s land use regulators have temporarily expanded restrictions on solar arrays on high-value farmland over the objections of advocates who claim they will impede development. The Land Conservation and Development Commission last week issued temporary rules clarifying that solar projects cannot “use, occupy, or cover” more than 12 acres, regardless of whether they “preclude” farm uses. However, the revised rules will allow solar facilities of up to 20 acres on such soils if the project includes a “farm use element” for the project’s duration, as determined by county land use rules. The special rules for “dual use” facilities are set to expire in 2022.
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New Mexico governor signs clean energy order
■Utility Dive - January 30
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham signed an executive order on Tuesday, committing the state to reduce carbon emissions by at least 45 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. The order establishes an inter-agency task force on climate change and directs state agencies to set vehicle and power plant emissions standards, adopt energy efficiency building standards, and identify transmission infrastructure to support renewables growth. The carbon emissions reduction commitment would put the state on track to reach the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement, from which President Donald Trump has pledged to withdraw.
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Bloomberg, Gap, and Salesforce join others to spearhead novel small-scale solar deal
■Greentech Media - January 28
Five companies, including Bloomberg, Gap, and Salesforce, recently announced a jointly negotiated solar agreement for 42.5 megawatts of renewables, a move the companies say is a “blueprint for renewable energy aggregation.” While aggregation deals are not new, the agreement announced this month is unique because of the small capacity signed for by each offtaker. Instead of one anchor tenant accounting for a majority of the agreement and smaller companies squeezing into the deal, all of the offtakers secured between 5 and 10 megawatts.
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U.S. Department of Defense issues RFP for microgrids
■Microgrid Knowledge - January 25
The U.S. Department of Defense wants to reduce costs and speed time to install military microgrids and is seeking demonstration projects via a newly issued request for proposals. Through its Installation Energy Test Bed, the defense department intends to fund multiple projects that speed microgrid design, simplify component and system integration, and accommodate expansion of military microgrids. The defense department anticipates seeking full proposals in August and announcing winners in October. Under this schedule, project construction would begin in 2020.
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Regulators consider bird-smart wind energy development off the California coast
■YubaNet - January 29
The federal Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is leading an effort to consider birds in their planning of wind energy development off the shores of California. American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has provided further considerations, including ways to minimize impacts in these areas to seabirds, including having developers buy into a mitigation fund to support seabird conservation efforts and using site-specific research and predictive mapping to determine whether there are any high-risk areas within the wind energy areas that should be excluded.
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Projects
Huge wind turbine project in eastern Shasta County is ready to go to the public
■Record Searchlight - January 23
A giant wind farm proposed for more than 35,000 acres in eastern Shasta County will be the topic of a scoping session this Thursday in Montgomery Creek regarding the project’s draft environmental impact report (EIR). Avangrid Renewables has proposed building up to 100 turbines on land near the Hatchet Ridge wind energy project. Lio Salazar, a senior planner with the county, said the goal is to have the final EIR go to the Shasta County Planning Commission late this year or early 2020.
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