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

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

3. 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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. Utility Scale PV Systems - Overview
NREL

8. Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues
NREL

9. 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

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

11. Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues
The Bureau of Land Management, cont.
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.

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

13. Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues
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
A process through which to consider additional zones and solar projects.

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

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

16. Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues
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/m2/day
BLM Areas of Critical Environmental Concern

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

18. Utility Scale PV Systems
BLM decision process

19. Utility Scale PV Systems
BLM decision process

20. Utility Scale PV Systems
Solar Energy Program
Solar Energy Zones
Variance Areas

21. 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

22. Utility Scale PV Systems
1a. BLM Authorization Process

23. Utility Scale PV Systems
1b. BLM Design Features

24. Utility Scale PV Systems
1g. BLM Pending Applications

25. Utility Scale PV Systems
1g. BLM Application Flowchart

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

27. Utility Scale PV Systems
3. BLM Variance Areas
Variance Process
Variance Applications
Restoration Design Energy Project

28. Utility Scale PV Systems

29. Utility Scale PV Systems
BLM Approved Energy Projects

30. Utility Scale PV Systems
BLM Approved Energy Projects Example

31. Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues

32. Utility Scale PV Systems – Land Issues
Agua Caliente SEZ

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