BLM Sets Rental Rate for Solar Plant Sites

June 11th, 2010 • Filed Under
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The Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday what it will charge in rent for solar-power plants on its acreage across the West and said the prices will encourage development while bringing revenue to the U.S. Treasury.

Reported by Staff

Dozens of solar-power plants are seeking permits on BLM land in in the Southwest but none have yet been approved. Once that takes place, money from the solar-rental payments will start flowing into the U.S. Treasury.

The new rental rates developed by the Federal agency are in large part a response to the Obama Administation’s push for the rapid development of alternative energy such as solar, according to the BLM announcement.

“Publishing this rental schedule moves our nation closer to creating a new energy frontier, one that relies more on renewable, clean energy sources,” BLM Director Bob Abbey said in the release.

“We are providing the solar-energy industry the level of certainty it needs about the costs associated with projects on public lands and ensuring a fair return to American taxpayers for the use of their public lands.”

 The BLM announcement was met with applause from the Solar Energy Industries Association 

“While oil and gas companies have received more than 74,000 permits to operate on federal lands in the past two decades, utility-scale solar developers have received zero,” Rhone Resch, president of the association, said in a prepared statement.

He also praised the BLM’s “fast-track” policies to rapidly permit certain solar projects.

“These policies . . . have helped the utility-scale solar-power project pipeline grow to 22 gigawatts, enough to provide clean power to (millions of) homes and create tens of thousands of jobs from coast to coast.”

 

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