DOI closes Arizona renewable energy zone plan

The U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) announced on January 18 that it as potentially suitable for utility-scale solar and wind-energy development on Arizona 192.100 hectares of public land named has. The publication of the record of decision for this initiative, known as design could absorb energy restoration project, caps of a three-year, nationwide environmental analysis of disturbed areas and other areas, the commercial renewable energy projects. The Department of Bureau of land management (BLM) eliminated from consideration lands in Arizona with sensitive resources, the protection as endangered or threatened wildlife and places of cultural and historical significance. The plan eliminates the need for a further environmental review of for each site.

Record of this decision is also the third solar zone on public land in Arizona and the eighteenth nationwide: the new 2,550-hectare Agua Caliente solar energy zone located in Yuma County, in the vicinity of date land and the BLM estimates that the zone could generate more than 20 megawatt solar utility-scale projects. The solar energy zones are part of the Obama administration efforts to the development of solar energy to facilitate the identification of areas in six States in the West with solar potential, some resource conflict, and access to existing or planned transmission. The zones include Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. See the press release of the Interior Department and the BLM record of decision.

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