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Sunday, March 22, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Sun Archives
- Small-scale solar seeks incentives (3-16-2009)
- State faces obstacles to cashing in on the sun (3-9-2009)
- NV Energy asks about stopping renewable fees (2-27-2009)
- Solar company to focus on manufacturing (2-23-2009)
- Green can fatten Nevadans' wallets, too (8-20-2008)
Beyond the Sun
In the desert of Amargosa Valley, Rainer Aringhoff hopes to build a $1 billion solar plant filled with mirrors that concentrate heat from the sun to generate energy.
His company, the Germany-based Solar Millennium, announced an informal agreement this month to sell 250 megawatts of solar power to NV Energy.
Aringhoff, like many other solar developers, hopes to begin construction by the end of 2010.
It’s a deadline without a lot of wiggle room because by that date solar energy developers must begin construction in order to take advantage of a federal funding program for solar plants.
At stake for Solar Millennium: as much as $300 million.
The concern for Solar Millennium and backers of the other 67 utility-scale solar projects vying to use federal lands in Nevada is that they have yet to begin environmental reviews, which typically take 18 to 24 months.
Developers say that’s because Bureau of Land Management offices in the state haven’t been able to efficiently handle the sudden interest in solar.
“BLM was really hit by a tsunami of applications at the same time that they were understaffed,” Aringhoff said.
Developers have complained that under the Bush administration, the agency favored oil and gas applications — or at least better understood them.
This month, Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar said he intends to change that. In his first secretarial order, issued March 11, Salazar decreed that “facilitating the production, development and delivery of renewable energy” should be top priorities for the department.
The message by then had been heard loud and clear at the Nevada BLM offices, its staffers say. The state is bringing on four new employees to work on renewable energy. At the Southern Nevada BLM office, which had 55 solar applications under review as of January, a project manager for renewable energy started three weeks ago.
“There is an effort to try to figure out how we can make this as fast a process as it can be,” said Patrick Putnam, the Pahrump office field manager.
Putnam said if everything goes as smoothly as possible, the environmental reviews could be completed in 14 to 16 months. That could allow solar developers to begin their projects in time to receive federal funding.
The race is on.
In the balance, developers and industry advocates say, may be the future of Nevada’s burgeoning solar industry.
Nevada’s abundant federal land (86 percent of the state) — coupled with its cloudless skies — has made it an attractive spot for would-be solar plant developers. But developers say the BLM permitting process for federal lands has been moving slowly. Some practices at the agency have at times appeared cumbersome or arbitrary.
“BLM is the bottleneck,” said Jim Baak, who directs utility-scale solar for the advocacy group Vote Solar.
Solar Millennium applied a year and a half ago to use 14,000 acres of land in Nye County for solar thermal. In the summer, along with other BLM solar applicants, the company was directed to revise its development plan to take into consideration new requirements.
“We had already submitted a plan of development but new criteria came in so we had to redo it, which was very detailed on the engineering side,” Aringhoff said.
Part of the problem, people familiar with the process say, is that the BLM didn’t have systems in place for solar applications, which it started receiving about two years ago.
BLM is studying how to make the process more efficient. The study should be finished early next year.
Local BLM staffers said in interviews last week that they are committed to moving solar projects along. At the same time, the agency doesn’t want to sacrifice careful environmental reviews, staffers say.
“We want to make sure everything is efficient, but accuracy is more important to us,” Las Vegas BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton said. “We don’t want to drag it out. We want to dispel the myths that BLM is holding up renewable energy.”
In a statement Tuesday, Salazar said he is establishing an energy and climate change task force that would identify and quantify renewable energy spots on public lands and work to “resolve obstacles to renewable energy permitting, siting, development and production without compromising environmental values.”
Developers say they’re hopeful the emphasis from top levels of the department will, in the long run at least, help. Whether changes will be fast enough to meet the 2010 deadline, and help access the grants, is less certain.
The grants — equal to 30 percent of a project’s cost — were inserted into the stimulus package to address a problem caused by the recession.
Congress in the fall passed $2.5 billion to fund tax credits for solar plants. Those tax credits don’t expire until 2016 and are expected to eventually create 2,800 megawatts of new solar power.
But because of current economic conditions, the market for tax credits has dried up. As a temporary measure, Congress in the stimulus package allowed the credits to temporarily be converted into grants. In keeping with the goals of the Recovery Act, Congress limited the grants to “shovel-ready” solar projects to spur quick job creation.
The act says construction must begin before Dec. 31, 2010, but does not define what constitutes construction.
The hope for developers is that by the end of 2010, economic recovery will be under way and they will again be able to take advantage of the tax credits.
Some developers say they’re not expecting approvals for federal land use by the deadline.
BrightSource Energy, for example, first applied for BLM land in Nevada nearly two years ago. A spokesman said the company doesn’t expect to begin construction on public lands before the end of 2010.
The Oakland-based company announced last week that it plans to generate as much as 600 megawatts of solar on private land owned by Harvey Whittemore for his planned Coyote Springs development, thus avoiding that key step. That project should get under way by the deadline.
That’s the same tack taken by two utility-size solar plants that are operating in the state. Both are on land owned by Boulder City, which didn’t require environmental reviews.
State Assembly Speaker Barbara Buckley would like to create a similar program for the state. Last week she introduced a joint resolution calling on Congress to pass a law deeding a small portion of BLM land to the state for renewable energy development.
“The BLM process is slow and cumbersome,” Buckley said. “In Nevada we’re committed to developing the state as a renewable energy leader and we have no doubt this would help us move much quicker.”
Buckley said her idea always receives an enthusiastic reception at town hall meetings.
Some worry the state won’t have the proper expertise to deal with such applications. Skipping the environmental reviews required by BLM lease applications also could lead to problems.
“It’s a way of speeding up the process, and I think that’s an interesting way to go,” said Charles Benjamin, Nevada director for Western Resource Advocates. “But then how would a review of environmental impacts take effect? This would be of concern to some conservation folks who have worked very hard to try to preserve federal lands.”
A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who has been a strong proponent of renewable energy development in the state, said the senator will have no comment on Buckley’s idea until it passes in the Legislature.
Either way, Aringhoff says his project hinges in part on the pace of federal bureaucracy — barring a nationwide economic recovery that would allow him to access the tax credits again or a liberal definition of “construction” to stretch the time line for solar projects to receive federal grants.
BLM permits are just one step he will need to take before construction begins.
“It’s on a critical time path,” Aringhoff said. “But on the other side, if all of what has been discussed in recent weeks happens, then I think we are confident of doing it in the time frame.”
Wait a minute. We have Senator Feinstein calling for a halt to solar in the desert. We cannot spoil our deserts just because we want energy and jobs. She railes about Calif deserts but the Federal BLM is requiring extensive EIR reports (an excuse to extort money for special groups)before any roads can be built to the solar sites.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/...
Don't you love government? They are going to "study" how to review applications for solar, and then "study" the applications for 1-2 years. It's called government BS and lifetime jobs for public layabouts.
Once again, the Las Vehas Sun is totally ignoring the actual issues here. Solar Millennium wants 250 megawatts for a wet cooled CSP plant. That equates to 6 acre feet of water per megawatt.They can attempt to purchase the water rights, but if you did your research, you would understand that there is not enough wtaer in Amargosa Valley to do this. In Nevada you can not get the full acre foot because a certian percentage goes to agriculture. Plus it is a desert, that groundwater supports endemic species in Ash Meadows.
There are also property values and environmental issues. I called BLM and asked them about this stream lining. They said it would not effect NEPA. I sure hope that the feds and that scum sucker Harry Reid are not going to give our public lands away to one company that plans to dry up the groundwater. We will stop this project due to the intense resource damage it will cause and the ugly eyesore it will create.
There are enough rooftops to get the sun's energy. Technology has made it so efficient, that we dn't need these big boondoggles that muck up the view and dry up the groundwater. The Las Vegas Sun is a biased paper that only tells the side that makes them feel good. They obvously hate the desert and wantt see it destroyed. They don't even care about the local people it would impact. Big slar plants need to be backed up by natural gas. They will need to build a big natural gas plant. There is N base load yet in Amargsa Valley. This BS project is years away from happening. Why should those of us who live out here give up our home so fat people in Vegas can waste all the enrgy they want?
I keep reading derogatory comments about a newspaper (Sun) that is trying to inform what appears handily to be an ignorant public on solar energy and all the machinations it brings with it. As for Senator Harry, he relies on staffers to bring sun energy information to him, and often that information is massaged before the staffers get it to him for his consumption. Same old government bureaucracy.
"We want to make sure everything is efficient, but accuracy is more important to us," Las Vegas BLM spokeswoman Hillerie Patton said. "We don't want to drag it out. We want to dispel the myths that BLM is holding up renewable energy."
That is SUCH a load of BS. It is not a myth that the BLM is holding up renewable energy projects, it is the damn truth. Why in the world would staff need to STUDY for a year how to make something more efficient? JUST DO IT! I'll be shocked if even one of these projects in Amargosa Valley is able to move forward. The bureaucracy is breathtaking.
If they want to inform people, they should be educated on the water issues of the local area they are talking about. The Solar Millennium people are promoting a wet cooled system. They are promoting it in Amargosa Valley which has limited water.Much of the water goes to agriculture. Much of the water is supporting wildlife in Ash Meadows. You may not care about that, but these are issues that will probably (and hopefully) delay this terrible project forever. If Solar Millennium goes dry cooled or photovoltaic, they will not produce nearly as much energy and their investment will have to have welfare stimulus money to back them up. Even wet cooled plants run at three times the cost of conventional power. All this plan will do is raise your power bill and make a few poeple rich. The natural gas base load will pollute with C02 emissions as well. Won't even help with climate change. Each slar plant built will up your power bill. The rate payers and tax payers will have to pay extra to hold up these plans.
RE: Sunlizard's comment. You are correct in summation of the stupidity of this renewable energy "surge" to deplete TAXPAYER money from our federal and state treasuries. DO NOT forget people, this is YOUR tax money being GIVEN away in the form of TAX CREDITS to allow profiteering of PRIVATE not PUBLIC (you) companies. If they don't meet the 2010 deadline then they will "change it to a grant"...either way the PRIVATE companies do not have to pay it back. It is just another example of socializing (making the public pay with our taxes) the profiteering of private companies. Remember once it becomes a utility, it become subsidizable too, so you taxpayers will pay again for the increase in utility costs that will inevitably happen to cover the cost over runs of the new solar plant. So look for more taxes and higher energy rates. Then we will begin to deal with the depleted water table, the increase in water rates, the irreversible change of people's way of life and more government intrusion into where and how we live. It has happened before and if we let it (and most people couldn't muster the intellect or time it takes to study these issues...it just doesn't effect THEM), it will happen again, the great land grab of Nevada by the moneyed big biz, politically connected crooks that run this country. I see a move north out of Nevada for me.
"That is SUCH a load of BS. It is not a myth that the BLM is holding up renewable energy projects, it is the damn truth. Why in the world would staff need to STUDY for a year how to make something more efficient? JUST DO IT! I'll be shocked if even one of these projects in Amargosa Valley is able to move forward. The bureaucracy is breathtaking."
I guess you don't live in Amargsa Valley. Why should you care about groundwater depletion and other people's property values? I guess we should all give up our lives so you can feel good about your over use of flat screen TVs.
I think you need to get a personal wind mill and try to learn more about these issues..
The land that the BLM manages in the Aramagosa valley is our land ..as in yours and mine .. so take your time BLM and make sure that the project is legit and not a boondoggle to get something that isn't free for the taking.
Same with the 300 million dollar grant... our money.. please spend it wisely.
Don't forget the desert tortoise. Never mind the fact that ravens like to eat the juvenile turtles. Speaking of ravens, won't they get blinded by all the mirrors in the desert?
In an effort to speed up construction of a border fence, the government decided to waive EIR requirements. While the rights of property owners were trampled.
Fact is we have so many laws, rules, rights, regulations, requirements, studies, licensing, taxing, oversight committees, committees to oversee the oversight committees...PC run rampant. It's a wonder we ever get anything done.
If someone has a solution, guarantee some is going to have a problem with it.
We have a mess
Good thing our Senator destroyed nuclear power for any type of our future energy needs, now that all the bugs are worked out for its alternatives (not)! ;)
"Reid" more at http://aBadReid.com