CEAC-2022-02-February
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sideration, she said.<br />
The agency in early December issued a draft plan to reduce<br />
rents and other fees paid by companies authorized to build<br />
wind and solar projects on public lands. Officials were unable<br />
to provide an estimate of how much money that could save<br />
developers.<br />
In Nevada, where the federal government owns and manages<br />
more than 80 percent of the state’s land, large-scale<br />
solar projects have faced opposition from environmentalists<br />
concerned about harm to plants and animals in the sun- and<br />
windswept deserts.<br />
Developers abandoned plans for what would have been the<br />
country’s largest solar panel installation earlier in 2<strong>02</strong>1 north<br />
of Las Vegas amid concerns from local residents. Environmentalists<br />
are fighting another solar project near the Nevada-California<br />
border that they claim could harm birds and desert<br />
tortoises.<br />
Stone-Manning said solar projects on public lands are being<br />
sited to take environmental concerns into account.<br />
The solar development zones were first proposed under the<br />
Obama administration, which in 2012 adopted plans to bring<br />
utility-scale solar energy projects to public lands in Arizona,<br />
California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. Officials<br />
have identified almost 1,400 square miles of public land for<br />
potential leasing for solar power.<br />
If all that land were developed, the bureau says it could support<br />
more than 100 gigawatts of solar power, or enough for<br />
29 million homes.<br />
That’s almost equal to all U.S. solar capacity now in place.<br />
The power generation capacity of solar farms operating on<br />
federal lands is a small fraction of that amount — just over 3<br />
gigawatts, federal data shows.<br />
In November the land bureau awarded solar leases for land<br />
in Utah’s Milford Flats solar zone. Solar leases were expected<br />
to be finalized by the end of 2<strong>02</strong>1 for land at several sites in<br />
Arizona.<br />
Solar power on public and private lands accounted for about<br />
3 percent of total U.S. electricity production in 2<strong>02</strong>0. After<br />
construction costs fell during the past decade, that figure is<br />
expected to grow sharply, to more than 20 percent by 2050,<br />
the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects.<br />
Developers warn costs have been rising due to constraints on<br />
supplies of steel, semiconductor chips and other materials.<br />
Associated Press writer Sam Metz in Carson City, Nev., contributed<br />
to this report.<br />
Volume 87 · Number 2 | 47
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