Photovoltaic Systems Engineering Utility Scale Development: SEC598S19 Photovoltaic Systems Engineering Session 21 Utility Scale Development: Land Issues March 27, 2019

Session 21 content Utility Overview Utility Scale Land Issues Design Components Solar Resource Business Arrangements EPC Utility Scale Land Issues Overview Examples

Session 21 - Value to class members 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 and techniques for managing these issues, with a detailed examination of the BLM Solar Energy Program

Utility Scale PV Systems (References) A.Fong and J.Tippett, Project Development in the Solar Industry, CRC Press, 2013 S.Neill, G.Stapleton, and C.Martell, Solar Farms, Routledge, 2017

Utility Scale PV Systems - Overview Design Goals Meeting expected (or modeled) performance Engineering professionalism Reliable performance Standards and Codes Safe operation Aesthetics Building and Zoning

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

Utility Scale PV Systems - Overview NREL

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues NREL

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

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues The Bureau of Land Management http://www.blm.gov The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska. The BLM also administers 700 million acres of sub-surface mineral estate throughout the nation.

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues The Bureau of Land Management, cont. http://www.blm.gov The BLM's mission is to manage and conserve the public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations under a mandate of multiple-use and sustained yield. In Fiscal Year 2014, the BLM generated $5.2 billion in receipts from public lands.

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues The Bureau of Land Management

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues The Bureau of Land Management http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/october/NR_10_12_2012.html 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 A process through which to consider additional zones and solar projects.

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues The Bureau of Land Management http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/october/NR_10_12_2012.html Obama Administration Approves Roadmap for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development on Public Lands, cont. 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.

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues The Bureau of Land Management http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/info/newsroom/2012/october/NR_10_12_2012.html Obama Administration Approves Roadmap for Utility-Scale Solar Energy Development on Public Lands, cont. 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.

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues The Bureau of Land Management http://solareis.anl.gov/maps/alternatives/index.cfm 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/m2/day BLM Areas of Critical Environmental Concern

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues The Bureau of Land Management http://solareis.anl.gov/maps/alternatives/index.cfm 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.

Utility Scale PV Systems BLM decision process

Utility Scale PV Systems BLM decision process

Utility Scale PV Systems http://blmsolar.anl.gov Solar Energy Program Solar Energy Zones Variance Areas

Utility Scale PV Systems 1. 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 1a. BLM Authorization Process http://blmsolar.anl.gov/program/authorization-policies/

Utility Scale PV Systems 1b. BLM Design Features http://blmsolar.anl.gov/program/design-features/

Utility Scale PV Systems 1g. BLM Pending Applications http://blmsolar.anl.gov/maps/data/Pending-Applications-Map.pdf

Utility Scale PV Systems 1g. BLM Application Flowchart http://blmsolar.anl.gov/documents/docs/Application_Processing_Flowchart.pdf

Utility Scale PV Systems BLM Solar Energy Zones http://blmsolar.anl.gov/sez/ Policies Competitive Leasing Identification Protocol The Six States in the Western Solar Plan

Utility Scale PV Systems 3. BLM Variance Areas Variance Process Variance Applications Restoration Design Energy Project http://www.blm.gov/az/st/en/prog/energy/arra_solar.html

Utility Scale PV Systems

Utility Scale PV Systems BLM Approved Energy Projects http://www.blm.gov/wo/st/en/prog/energy/renewable_energy/Renewable_Energy_Projects_Approved_to_Date.html

Utility Scale PV Systems BLM Approved Energy Projects Example http://www.blm.gov/ca/st/en/fo/palmsprings/Solar_Projects/Desert_Sunlight.html

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues http://blmsolar.anl.gov/sez/

Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues Agua Caliente SEZ http://blmsolar.anl.gov/sez/

Utility Scale PV Systems BLM (Argonne National Laboratory) Solar Energy Environmental Mapper http://solarmapper.anl.gov/learn/ http://bogi.evs.anl.gov/solmap/portal/