Over the past six months or so, there have been numerous announcements from the Obama Administration regarding fast tracking approvals for renewable energy projects on public lands.
In October, for example, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an agreement to spur development of renewable energy on federal lands in California.
These important agreements are not only streamlining the approval process, they are proactively identifying the best sites for renewable energy projects – those that have the best sun, wind or geothermal resources, and those that don’t present problems for wildlife and the environment. They are also coordinating with federal and state agencies to make sure appropriate transmission lines are available.
One of the projects that’s already resulted from the fast track process is a 378 MW wind farm in Arizona, the state’s first commercial-scale wind project. The Dry Lake Wind Power Project is sited on a combination of BLM-managed federal lands, Arizona State Trust Lands, and private lands on the Rocking Chair Ranch in Navajo County.
Now, the Interior Department announced five solar projects and one wind farm that are being fast tracked, totaling over 2000 MW of capacity, and all in California. An Environmental Impact Statement has been completed for a 400 MW solar tower project, and five other projects are beginning environmental reviews.
Three of the solar projects would be built by Germany-based Solar Millennium (S2M.DE), a strong utility-scale solar thermal development firm.
Earlier this year, the company joined with MAN Ferrostaal, another German firm to form the Solar Trust of America, LLC, which would provide turnkey development, construction and finance for large-scale concentrated solar power (CSP) plants in the southwest United States.
Uwe Schmidt, Solar Trust of America CEO said "With thousands of fully-funded and completed industrial projects in the combined portfolios of our business partners, we expect to become the industry leader in the development and construction of solar thermal power plants in the U.S."
Solar Millennium has already signed agreements with Southern California Edison to provide 726 MW of power. The company built the Andasol 1, 2 and 3 solar thermal power plants in Spain, each of which represents over $1 billion in investment and local procurement. Two of the plants feature large-scale thermal storage technology capable of extending power production for 7.5 hours per day after the sun sets. MAN Ferrostaal AG is the engineering and construction arm for Andasol 3.
The 3 fast tracked California plants would be 484 MW on 5200 acres, 968 MW on 9500 acres and 250 MW on 4640 acres.
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