A diverse group of interests including The Nature Conservancy and the Solar Energy Industries Association have agreed on policies to advance large, utility-scale solar photovoltaic power development.
The agreement, “Collaboration Agreement on Large-Scale U.S. Solar Development: Integrating Climate, Conservation and Community” and brokered by Stanford University’s Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, is designed to bridge a conflict among large-scale solar development and “small is beautiful” advocates of rooftop solar, community solar, and microgrids.
“Major U.S. solar projects are critical to fighting climate change but are increasingly opposed across the nation due to significant community and land conservation concerns,” said Stanford energy scholar Dan Reicher, who launched and leads the Solar Uncommon Dialogue. Reicher, a lawyer, as Department of Energy assistant secretary for energy efficiency and renewable energy in the Clinton administration. Before that, he worked for the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The parties to the agreement, including, among others, National Audubon Society, NRDC, and the Union of Concerned Scientists, “seek to accelerate the clean energy transition through the development of large-scale U.S. solar projects, while also prioritizing conservation and benefiting local communities and community engagement.”
“We’re committed to accelerating the renewable energy buildout and have to go smart to go fast,” said TNC CEO Jen Morris. “Bringing environmental groups to the table ensures that we strike the right balance, delivering clean energy solutions while safeguarding our precious natural resources and communities.” SEIA CEO Abigail Ross Hopper said, “As the solar and storage industry grows, it’s critical that we prioritize local engagement. We are thrilled to join our partners in this landmark agreement to help us quickly, responsibly, and equitably deploy solar and storage projects. We’re confident that by thoughtfully addressing stakeholder concerns from the start, we’ll be able to deliver the equitable clean energy future we need to see.”
The agreement will lead to the creation of six working groups focused, the collaborative said, on “key issues and opportunities including community engagement, siting-related risk assessment and decision-making, energy and agricultural technologies, tribal relations, and policy solutions. The working groups will address “improved public participation practices, solar siting mechanisms, regulation, financial incentives, information tools, and other means. The goal is to create best practices that solar companies, local governments, and other stakeholders can use to effectively site solar projects.”
The solar collaborative is using Stanford’s “Uncommon Dialog” model,” convening “cross-sector experts and stakeholders designed to find common ground and build consensus around specific environmental challenges.” An earlier “Hydropower Uncommon Dialog” helped lead, the Stanford Woods Institute said, “$2.3 billion in federal funding for implementation of its working groups’ recommendations.”
The solar agreement notes that large-scale, utility sized solar requires lots of natural resources, not typical of the more familiar examples of solar power commonly seen on residential rooftops or small fields. The agreement advises, “Every megawatt of large-scale solar capacity installed typically requires between five and ten acres of land and frequently necessitates additional development of new transmission capacity – either upgrades of existing infrastructure or construction of new power lines – requiring substantial additional land. Millions of acres of rural land, much of it agricultural, will be required to accommodate solar at a scale that could contribute significantly to decarbonizing the nation’s electricity system, while recognizing that roof-top solar systems and smaller community solar projects will also incrementally add to the nation’s low-carbon generating capacity.”
That means inevitable conflicts among competing values. “The low-carbon benefits of large-scale solar development will encounter a variety of land use challenges,” says the agreement, “including, among others, conversion of agricultural lands, wildlife and habitat impacts, local community opposition, misinformation campaigns, tribal nation interests, and environmental justice concerns.”
The aim of the collaboration is “to best balance three imperatives in the development and deployment of large-scale U.S. solar projects:” climate change, conservation, and community.
–Kennedy Maize
To Subscribe to The Quad Report, use the email and type “subscribe” in the subject line.
To comment: