Session 21 (R) Utility Scale Solar Development Land and Permitting Issues March 30, 2016

Session 21 - Value to class members We have heard from the First Solar spokesman that utility scale solar energy systems have unique features largely due to the magnitude of the projects This session continues the examination of utility scale land issues, techniques for managing these issues, and the permitting process 2

Utility Scale PV Systems Design Steps 1. Selecting an appropriate site and solving all land issues 2. Carrying out the permitting process for construction and operation 3. Selecting a financing approach including power purchase agreements or energy off- take agreements 4. Carrying out PV system and solar field engineering and design 5. Interconnection to the grid 3

Utility Scale PV Systems The California desert lands are in private ownership and public ownership (Bureau of Land Management, or BLM) 4 Fong and Tippett, Project Development in Solar Industry, Ch.4

Utility Scale PV Systems The Bureau of Land Management Obama Administration Approves Roadmap for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development on Public Lands WASHINGTON, D.C. - As part of President Obama’s all-of-the-above energy strategy to expand domestic energy production, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar today finalized a program for spurring development of solar energy on public lands in six western states. The Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for solar energy development provides a blueprint for utility-scale solar energy permitting in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah by establishing solar energy zones with access to existing or planned transmission, incentives for development within those zones, and a process through which to consider additional zones and solar projects. The Solar PEIS establishes an initial set of 17 Solar Energy Zones (SEZs), totaling about 285,000 acres of public lands, that will serve as priority areas for commercial-scale solar development, with the potential for additional zones through ongoing and future regional planning processes. If fully built out, projects in the designated areas could produce as much as 23,700 megawatts of solar energy, enough to power approximately 7 million American homes. The program also keeps the door open, on a case-by-case basis, for the possibility of carefully sited solar projects outside SEZs on about 19 million acres in “variance” areas. The program also includes a framework for regional mitigation plans, and to protect key natural and cultural resources the program excludes a little under 79 million acres that would be inappropriate for solar development based on currently available information. 5

Utility Scale PV Systems 6 BLM decision process

Utility Scale PV Systems 7 BLM decision process

Utility Scale PV Systems 8 Solar Energy Program Solar Energy Zones Variance Areas

Utility Scale PV Systems 9 BLM Solar Energy Program Authorization Policies Design Features Exclusions Laws, Orders, and Regulations Forms and Templates Pending Solar Applications Application Processing Flowchart

Utility Scale PV Systems 10 BLM Authorization Process on-policies/

Utility Scale PV Systems 11 BLM Design Features features/

Utility Scale PV Systems 12 BLM Pending Applications -Applications-Map.pdf

Utility Scale PV Systems 13 BLM Application Flowchart pplication_Processing_Flowchart.pdf

Utility Scale PV Systems 14 BLM Solar Energy Zones Policies Competitive Leasing Identification Protocol The Six States in the Western Solar Plan

Utility Scale PV Systems The Bureau of Land Management BLM-administered lands where development is prohibited by law, regulation, Presidential proclamation or Executive Order (i.e., lands in the National Landscape Conservation System [NLCS]) Lands having slopes greater than 5% Lands with solar insolation levels less than 6.5 kWh/m 2 /day BLM Areas of Critical Environmental Concern Critical habitat for USFWS designated threatened and endangered species BLM Right-of-Way Exclusion and Avoidance Areas BLM No Surface Occupancy Areas Special Recreation Management Areas (note these were not excluded in the State of Nevada or in a portion of the Yuma East SRMA in Arizona) Greater sage-grouse habitat in California, Nevada, and Utah; Gunnison's sage-grouse habitat in Utah; and Desert Wildlife Management Areas, Flat Tailed Horned Lizard habitat, and Mojave Ground Squirrel habitat in California. 15

Utility Scale PV Systems The Bureau of Land Management 16

Utility Scale PV Systems Agua Caliente SEZ 17

Utility Scale PV Systems 18 BLM Variance Areas Variance Process Variance Applications Restoration Design Energy Project ar.html

Utility Scale PV Systems 19

Utility Scale PV Systems 20 BLM Approved Energy Projects enewable_energy/Renewable_Energy_Pr ojects_Approved_to_Date.html

Utility Scale PV Systems 21 BLM Approved Energy Projects Example s/Solar_Projects/Desert_Sunlight.html

Utility Scale PV Systems 22 Development Tools Transmission Line Routes and Information Platts (not public) Google Earth Renewable Energy Resource Data NREL Protected or Sensitive Natural Resource Area Maps Wetlands Flora Resource Databases Land Ownership Data Geographic Soil Data Web Soil Survey (USDA)

Utility Scale PV Systems 23 BLM (Argonne National Laboratory) Solar Energy Environmental Mapper