Western Transmission, Solar Environmental Impacts, on Feds' To-Do List

Posted on June 4, 2008 by Dennis Pfaff

Federal energy and land management officials have launched an effort to assess environmental impacts associated with booming solar developments in the Western United States.

The government announced recently it was putting a hold on new applications for projects located on the Bureau of Land Management's vast holdings until after the process is completed. The statement also suggested officials are thinking about adding an element of competition to the application process.

At the same time, the U.S. Department of Energy, one of the agencies involved in the solar assessment, separately said it is taking additional steps in cooperation with Western states to expedite energy transmission.

As Climate Law Update has reported previously, transmission and solar issues, including federal efforts to expedite new lines, have already sparked controversy. Transmission has been particularly contentious, generating legal action.  Federal officials have previously identified improvements to the transmission grid as one of the major challenges to expanding wind energy. 

Regarding solar development, energy officials and the land management bureau, a part of the Interior Department, are developing what's known as a "programmatic environmental impact statement" weighing environmental, social and economic effects. The document, which a Federal Register notice said is expected to take 22 months to produce, is intended to cover projects located in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.

A schedule of public meetings to discuss the project was laid out in the notice, beginning June 16 in Riverside, California. Other meetings were scheduled for various other cities in California, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada and Utah, wrapping up in Albuquerque, New Mexico on June 26.

The Federal Register notice said that the goal of the process was to develop and implement programs for the two agencies to "facilitate environmentally responsible utility-scale solar energy
development." The study area was limited to the six states because they "encompass the most prospective solar energy resources suitable for utility-scale development over the next 20 years," the notice said.

It added that the process was not intended to eliminate the need for site-specific environmental reviews on individual projects. 

The notice also divulged that BLM officials are considering whether to establish a solar program to supplement or replace existing policies, and that the process would be used to identify lands that are, and are not, suitable for solar projects. Not included in the environmental assessment would be areas within national monuments, wilderness areas or under similar restrictions. The bureau manages 258 million acres in 12 states.

The energy department, meanwhile, would use the process to consider developing its own solar energy "program of environmental policies and mitigation strategies that would apply to the deployment of solar energy projects" it supports on federal, state, private or tribal lands, according to the notice.  

The BLM's press announcement and the Federal Register notice said while the environmental process is ongoing the agency would concentrate on the 125 applications it has already received before accepting any right-of-way proposals. Those existing applications cover nearly a million acres of land and include projects with the potential to generate more than 70 billion watts of electricity.

New applications, depending on the outcome of the environmental assessment, might be accepted through a competitive process, "which is likely to attract companies with the experience and resources necessary to quickly deploy solar energy projects."

Regarding the transmission issue, the energy department said it planned to contribute as much as $2.3 million to identify areas in the West "with vast renewable energy resources, and expedite the development and delivery of those resources to meet regional energy needs." The Western Renewable Energy Zones project was to be carried out under a cooperative agreement with the Western Governors' Association.

According to the project's web site, 11 states, two Canadian provinces, and areas in Mexico that are part of the Western Interconnection would all participate.

(Pictured: Photovoltaic plant near Alamosa, Colorado, built by SunEdison; U.S. Department of Energy/National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Credit: Tom Stoffel) 
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Energy Department Says U.S. Saw Big Growth in Wind Power

Posted on May 30, 2008 by Dennis Pfaff

There have been consistent indications that wind power is taking off in a big way in the United States and elsewhere. But a new assessment produced by the U.S. Department of Energy still came up with some impressive statistics showing the extent of the wind rush.

The report found that in 2007 wind power capacity in America increased by nearly 50 percent from the previous year, with installations more than doubling 2006's record. "No country," the report said, "in any single year, has added the volume of wind capacity that was added to the United States electrical grid in 2007." 

About $9 billion was invested in new wind projects in 2007, according to the report, and those developments accounted for about 35 percent of all new electrical generating capacity in the nation for the year. 

The department, as Climate Law Update reported recently, has already determined that wind could provide 20 percent of the nation's electricity by 2030.  Andy Karsner, Energy's assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy, noted that goal and said in a statement accompanying the release of the new report:

"This record-shattering year of wind additions shows that wind power is already one of the most important, emission-free sources of energy being deployed to address climate change and improve our energy security."

The wide-ranging document, "Annual Report on U.S. Wind Power Installation, Cost and Performance Trends: 2007," covered key aspects of the wind market, including trends in wind installations, turbine size and prices and project costs.

It showed not only how far the nation had come, but also the distance yet to be traveled to reach the 20 percent objective. For instance, the document reports that the United States has had the fastest-growing wind market worldwide and that it has led the world in new wind capacity for three years running.

In all, the country had nearly 17,000 megawatts of wind capacity at the end of 2007, up more than 5,300 megawatts. On the other hand, even with that growth -- a 46 percent jump in a single year -- it still represented just 1.2 percent of the country's electricity supply.

For individual states, the percentages were higher, however. Under a formula used by the report, nine states had enough wind capacity to account for more than 3 percent of their in-state generation. Topping the list were Minnesota and Iowa, where wind power accounted for 7.5 percent of each state's generation. Texas, the nation's top wind power state in terms of its total capacity, accounted for 3 percent while California, number two in the nation, came in at 2.8 percent. 

Overall, Texas easily dominated the other states in terms of new wind projects, installing more than 1,700 megawatts of turbines in 2007. Other states installing more than 400 megawatts each included Colorado, Illinois, Oregon and Minnesota. California, by contrast, had a relatively puny 63 megawatts installed. But that might change in the future as the result of new contracts such as one Climate Law Update recently highlighted.   

The report also documented economic ripple effects from the boom in wind energy development. It found that new turbine and component manufacturing facilities that were opened last year could account for as many as 4,700 new jobs. On the other hand, the report documented some quality control problems that surfaced as certain companies rapidly scaled up their operations.

GE remained the dominant manufacturer of turbines in the United States market, followed by Vestas, Siemens, Gamesa, Mitsubishi and Suzlon.

Turbine prices themselves have also increased dramatically -- by about 85 percent since 2002 -- according to the report. It attributed the spike to several factors, including the declining value of the dollar, increases in costs of materials such as steel and oil, shortages in some components, and moves by manufacturers to increase their profitability. Nevertheless, the report said that "wind power prices have been competitive with wholesale power market prices over the past few years."

One familiar cloud remained on the horizon, the future of tax incentives for renewable energy, including wind. Less than two weeks ago, House lawmakers made another attempt to get something going on the subject of tax credits for wind and other alternative energy sources, but its future remains uncertain. The importance of the tax incentives, the report said, was shown by the fact that there were "pronounced lulls" in adding new capacity during years when the "production tax credit," equal to about 2-cents per kilowatt hour, lapsed. Without an "imminent extension," the document said, the industry "may experience another quiet year" in 2009.

Another perennial obstacle to renewables, transmission capacity, showed some sign of easing with new expenditures on the rise. However, the report noted that "lack of transmission availability remains a primary barrier to wind development."

The report also found that state policies were important. For instance, it noted that 55 percent of the wind power capacity built between 1999 and 2007 was in states that had renewables portfolio standards requiring their utilities to purchase a certain percentage of power from renewable sources. In 2007, the proportion of new wind capacity going into states with such requirements was more than 75 percent, the report said.

(Photo of Texas wind farm, Department of Energy National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Credit: Todd Spink)        
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