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BLM officials are planning to open four offices in the West, including one in Phoenix, to handle the growing demand for renewable energy projects - particularly solar and wind developments.
"The solar ones have been coming in very quickly," said BLM spokesman David Quick, adding the bureau did not yet have a timetable or a site for the Phoenix office.
There were no federal statistics specific to Arizona, but BLM has 223 applications pending for solar projects on federal land and 217 for wind projects. Wind farms have become primary users of federal land, with 192 approved to date, Quick said.
The state also is seeing more renewable energy companies looking to place large projects on public land, said Mark Winkleman, state land commissioner.
Arizona has 12 applications pending for wind projects and eight for solar.
"You don't have to go back too far to when we didn't have any applications," he said.
The State Land Department, which controls about 9.3 million acres, or about 13 percent of the available land in Arizona, is looking for new ways to pull money into government coffers. The agency once was able to auction state land to developers for record prices and use the proceeds to support education programs, but those opportunities have fallen with the housing market, Winkleman said.
"This is a way not only to provide the use for state land, but also to provide a source of renewable energy," he said.
The state's largest renewable energy project, the Solana Generating Station outside Gila Bend, is to be built on private land by Abengoa Solar. Arizona Public Service Co. will buy the power. APS officials see an opportunity for development on public and private lands.
"There is a strong interest across the board in solar generation," said Barb Lockwood, manager of renewable energy at APS.
Utility-scale generation will require large amounts of land. Solana will use 3 square miles to produce more than 280 megawatts. Depending on the solar or wind technology used, the land needed to generate that much power could range from a little smaller to considerably larger.
BLM is attempting to streamline the process for applications. One step is opening the four offices, three of which are in California. Another is to provide basic environmental impact data on each type of renewable energy project to jump-start the studies required for proposed projects, Quick said.
Jesse Gronner, managing director of wind business development for Iberdrola Renewables, said the company dealt with public and private land in developing its Dry Lake Wind Project near Snowflake.
"There's a general rule of thumb that says if you can work on private land, do it," he said.
With Salt River Project committed to buying all of the output from Dry Lake, Gronner said the company went through the process with both the federal and state land agencies. It was able to save time with BLM's programmatic environmental impact study, and it was one of the first wind projects that went through the state process.
Both agencies, along with other states, have shown a willingness to work with renewable energy companies, Gronner said.
Lori Singleton, manager of environmental initiatives for SRP, said there is increasing demand from companies looking to develop renewable power generation and sell it to utilities.
"We are talking with a lot of developers out there looking at all of the developable land," she said.
Christopher Davey, business development manager for EnviroMission Ltd., an Australian company with U.S. operations, said companies will choose the best land for their particular project, based on factors including its proximity to existing power infrastructure.
"Ultimately, the due diligence you're going to do on one site, you're going to do on another," said Davey, whose company has an application before the state.
EnviroMission uses a "solar tower" power generation concept in which hot air is trapped under a greenhouse structure and the air is forced up the tower, turning turbines along the way. The company is looking at creating a massive tower capable of producing more than 200 megawatts. Davey said it would require about the same land area as a concentrated solar power operation similar to Solana.
One advantage to using private land is the level of rights secured in the transaction. Gronner said there always are caveats in federal and state contracts that can change the land's status and potentially remove the project from the land.
Both BLM and the states are offering greater options and priorities to renewable energy projects, Gronner said.
"BLM has been given clear direction to make sure renewable projects are looked at for federal land," he said.
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