Mojave desert solar array at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. (Getty Images)
Federal land managers Thursday released an updated roadmap for solar energy development across 11 western states, a plan that opens about 32 million acres of federal lands to utility-scale solar development.
The proposal released by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, known as the Western Solar Plan, updates a decade-old plan that identifies areas with high solar potential and low resource conflicts in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and New Mexico.
Once finalized, the plan will set the trajectory for solar energy development across the West for the next two decades.
Under the plan, about 12 million acres of public land in Nevada would be available for solar development, more than twice as much as Utah — the next most affected state included in the western plan.
The plan would allow solar developments within 15 miles of existing and planned transmission lines or designated energy corridors, including the planned Greenlink North Transmission Project — a 235-mile transmission line across rural White Pine, Eureka, Lander, Churchill, and Lyon counties. The plan would also allow solar development on previously disturbed lands beyond 15 miles of transmission lines or energy corridors.