First-Ever Competitive Auction to Develop Solar Energy on Public Lands

BLM
The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is hosting its first competitive auction for public lands in designated Solar Energy Zones (SEZs) in Colorado. (...) The company with the winning bid will then submit a project proposal that will be subject to further environmental review and public comment. (...) If fully developed, the two Colorado SEZs could host about 400 MW of solar capacity. (...) These [locations] have access to existing or planned transmission lines and were designed to have minimal impact on biological, cultural and historic resources in the region.
Developers siting projects within these zones will receive a number of incentives, including financial incentives and faster and easier permitting. (...) President Obama has directed Interior to approve 20 GW of renewable energy production on public lands by 2020. Since 2009, Interior has approved 47 solar, wind and geothermal utility-scale projects on public lands. If built, these projects would have an aggregate generating capacity of more that 13.3 GW – this includes 25 solar projects totaling 8 GW.