Utility-Scale Photovoltaic
Renewable energy, especially photovoltaics, is booming.
The major growth is in large, utility-scale systems for one simple reason: lower costs. The graph tells the story: solar panel costs have declined more rapidly than any other technology. Solar PV and on-shore wind are now cheaper than natural gas, coal, or nuclear.
The new administration says it will gut the Inflation Reduction Act and cut renewable energy programs, but they can’t change the economics, and IRA benefits are mainly in red states. Corporations invest to maximize shareholder profit by building the least expensive new capacity or by purchasing the cheapest power from other producers. Economics, not politics, will likely be the controlling factor.
Where should solar farms be located? Public land? Private land?
The national Sierra Club approved a “Policy for Siting of Renewable Energy…” that supports renewable energy projects if environmental and social issues are addressed (for the details see https://www.sierraclub.org/policy/energy).
Corporations smell profits in utility-scale solar and have proposed dozens of new facilities covering 73,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Arizona as of September, 2024–and this is an incomplete estimate. The BLM is in the final stages of a solar siting plan that will allow solar development on more than 31 million acres of public land in 11 states. It proposes to:
Allow solar applications within 15 miles of existing or proposed transmission lines, and beyond that distance on previously disturbed lands.
Exclude development in areas with a high likelihood of resource conflict, including with sensitive wildlife or cultural resources.
Apply only to solar projects that are 5 megawatts or larger and connect to the grid.
Allow solar development applications in areas with up to a 10 percent slope.
Ensure projects avoid, minimize, and compensate for adverse impacts.
The Sierra Club has some concerns (including that 31 million acres is excessive) but at least the BLM used a rational planning process with clearly stated criteria.
Locating large PV facilities on private land is controlled by local zoning codes. Those codes are created and administered by less rational local county and city officials, usually in rural Arizona where misinformation is thicker than cold honey.
For example, in Yavapai County there are roughly 8,000 acres of proposed PV facilities. The Board of Supervisors just enacted–despite vigorous opposition from Yavapai Group–an anti-solar ordinance that restricts large solar to a county-wide maximum of 10,000 acres located at least 10 miles from a “visual resource” (whatever that is…), and more. The Town of Chino Valley is considering an ordinance that is reasonably well designed. In each case the public hearings were full of citizen fear, NIMBY, and misinformation.
I encourage Sierra Club members to watch for local solar ordinances and to participate in the civic discussion. Myth-busting is super important. There are lots of online resources–here’s one: “Rebutting 33 False Claims About Solar, Wind, and Electric Vehicles,” available at https://scholarship.law.columbia.edu/sabin_climate_change/217/
Image courtesy of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cost_of_electricity_by_source
Image caption:
With increasingly widespread implementation of renewable energy sources, costs have declined, most notably for energy generated by solar panels. Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is a measure of the average net present cost of electricity generation for a generating plant over its lifetime.
By RCraig09 - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=99427431