US' BLM soliciting for utility-scale solar projects on 90,000 acres of state land

• The United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is soliciting rate of interest for utility-scale solar projects on almost 90,000 acres of public land situated throughout Colorado, Nevada and also New Mexico, making up the firm's largest solar rate of interest given that 2012.

The certain locations recognized in the solicitation are as follows:

Colorado

• Antonito Southeast Solar Energy Zone (9,712 acres).
• DeTilla Gulch Solar Energy Zone (1,064 acres).
• Los Mogotes East Solar Energy Zone (2,650 acres).

Nevada

• Dry Lake Valley North Solar Energy Zone (25,069 acres).
• Gold Point Solar Energy Zone (4,596 acres).
• Millers Solar Energy Zone (16,534 acres).

New Mexico

• Afton Solar Energy Zone (29,964 acres).

" Today's request for interest in these solar energy zones is a possibility to expand the possibilities for the sector as we work to do our part to satisfy America's power needs," claimed BLM supervisor Tracy Stone-Manning.

To day, the BLM, part of the United States Department of the Interior (DOI), has assigned approximately 870,000 acres of government public land as environmentally preferrable for solar leasing based on the locations' high possibility for solar energy as well as suitability for utility-scale solar plants.

The solicitation builds on recent solar offers by the BLM. In November, it granted 3 solar leases on 4,800 acres within the Milford Flats Solar Energy Zone in Utah, and also it expects to settle leasing arrangements for a further 8,500 acres within the Gillespie, Brenda and also Agua Caliente Solar Energy Zones in Arizona prior to completion of December.

In August, the agency introduced a public evaluation on a draft environmental analysis for 2 solar-plus-storage farms in California, which will certainly consist of 465MW of solar as well as 400MW of energy storage. It introduced yesterday that it had accepted the projects, which will cause a "mixed facilities investment of about US$ 689 million".

And in April it developed a brand-new Climate Task Force to accelerate the fostering of renewable energy generation throughout the country and revoked a number of Trump management policies promoting nonrenewable fuel sources on public land.