Dept of Interior Reaffirms Its Commitment to Fully Developing Public Land Green Energy.

[TaperPin]

Something close to 50 gigawatts of new solar capacity were installed in 2024. Doesn’t sound like it’s withering away if the average coal powered plant produces 1 gigawatt.

 

[Mike D Texas]

Something close to 50 gigawatts of new solar capacity were installed in 2024. Doesn’t sound like it’s withering away if the average coal powered plant produces 1 gigawatt.

How many acres were taken to make said 50gW?

Solar is the most inefficient way to produce power for consumption.

 

[TaperPin]

How many acres were taken to make said 50gW?

Solar is the most inefficient way to produce power for consumption.

Some people confuse efficiency with effectiveness. The solar panels running the exterior lights around our home are effective, so how technically efficient they are is so secondary it’s a non issue.

Some members of our family have had their whole house powered with solar since before solar was cool. It paid for itself a long time ago, and nobody we know would complain about free power, regardless of how efficient.

I see a large solar project spring up next to a cluster of data centers - about the same footprint as a traditional junk yard. I never complained junk yards were taking up too much space, so I could care less if some tech bros want to cut their peak daytime power costs.

 

[bigeyedfish]

I know of a spot in BFE Arkansas that currently has about 2,000 acres of panels. Within the next couple years it will be close to 6,000 continuous acres. Until you put eyes on these projects, it's pretty tough to understand the scale.

 

[CJ19]

The rush to implement Net Zero via renewable energy on public lands resulted in a gross number of deficiency that would result in damage to public lands.

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/audit-found-weaknesses-review-wind-solar-projects-us-public-lands-2025-09-18/

An AI summary:


An audit by the U.S. Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General (IG) has found significant weaknesses in the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) review process for wind and solar project applications on public lands between 2017 and 2023. The audit revealed that more than one in four approved projects contained deficiencies, and for 84% of the 258 applications reviewed, there was no evidence BLM verified applicants' technical and financial capabilities to develop the projects.
The IG attributed these failures to insufficient management oversight, outdated policies, and inadequate staff training, and issued 10 recommendations for improved internal controls, which the BLM agreed to implement.
Audit Findings on BLM's Wind and Solar Application Process


The BLM failed to properly evaluate the technical and financial qualifications of most applicants for wind and solar projects on federal lands.

Over 84% of the 258 applications processed between 2017 and 2023 lacked evidence of verification of applicant capabilities.

The audit identified deficiencies in project applications that could have prevented their advancement, stemming from poor oversight and outdated procedures.

The IG recommended 10 new internal control policies and procedures to improve the review process, and the BLM agreed with nine of them

 

[CJ19]

Here is an interactive map resource that I found that helps lay out new renewable energy development and transmission lines. The layering system allows for different projects to be overlayed relative to public land and other geographic features. Credit to the creator. It is a nice tool.

Our Grid Future

 

[CJ19]

In case people have not been following what is occurring here is a rough synopsis. Presently there is a push to increase permitting speeds of energy projects being batted around in both house and senate. The administration has been preventing an increase in those permitting speeds of renewable projects as well as limiting the permitting budget for renewable projects. The administration focus has been on conventional energy. Here is a post from Senator Martin Heinrich ranking member of the committee related to the permitting legislation push.

 

[WRO]

Some people confuse efficiency with effectiveness. The solar panels running the exterior lights around our home are effective, so how technically efficient they are is so secondary it’s a non issue.

Some members of our family have had their whole house powered with solar since before solar was cool. It paid for itself a long time ago, and nobody we know would complain about free power, regardless of how efficient.

I see a large solar project spring up next to a cluster of data centers - about the same footprint as a traditional junk yard. I never complained junk yards were taking up too much space, so I could care less if some tech bros want to cut their peak daytime power costs.

Want to make solar effective, cover roof on houses instead of destroying habitat.

 

[CJ19]

Want to make solar effective, cover roof on houses instead of destroying habitat.

we sort of talked about that earlier in the thread. Small systems are incredibly difficult to translate into grid power at scale. Especially without storage. Renewable energy is going to require projects to be built at incredibly large scale with storage if they are going to work the way that proponents of electrification and renewable net zero would like. storage is a big part of the renewable plan. All the metals involved in storage and electrification are driving a lot of the mining activity I see conservationists expressing concerns about such as ambler road. Renewable facilities are generally increasing in size not decreasing. Look at SunZia for instance.