The Biden Administration has approved three separate solar projects that will cover more than 5,000 acres in the California desert and provide enough power to electrify roughly 275,000 homes.
In a statement, the Biden Administration said the projects “will generate roughly 1,000 megawatts (or 1 gigawatt of power) and are the first projects approved under the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) in the desert regions of seven California counties.” Two of the projects, dubbed the Arica and Victory Pass solar projects, will generate a total of up to 465 megawatts of electricity with up to 400 megawatts of battery storage. A larger third site called the Oberon solar project will cover 2,700 acres of land and generate up to 500 megawatts of electricity.
Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning said this effort underscores the Biden Administration’s commitment to clean energy.
“Investing in clean and reliable renewable energy represents the BLM’s commitment for addressing climate change and supports Congress’ direction in the Energy Act of 2020 to permit 25 gigawatts of solar, wind, and geothermal production on public lands no later than 2025,” Manning said.
The BLM also said this week that it is “soliciting interest for utility-scale solar energy development on nearly 90,000 acres of public land located across Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico.” This solicitation is the agency’s “largest for solar development interest,” since it designated 17 new solar energy zones back in 2012. Additionally, the BLM says it is currently processing a total of 54 onshore clean energy projects in the western U.S.. including 40 solar projects, four wind projects and four geothermal projects.
The Biden Administration hopes clean energy efforts such as this will work in concert with its stricter new emissions regulations and proposed EV incentives to help reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. whilst also creating more union jobs for American workers.
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Comments
What does this have to do with gm vehicles again? Is this website pro-biden or what?
Well it’s simple go look at any articles these guys write and check the comments. Anything that is about a vaccine or politics will have way more comments then anything about just a car unless say it’s about a new hyped up release. So that means more traffic for the website it’s turning into at least one article a day about politics in some form.
It seems to me there is an elephant in the room in regards to the location of this solar array. Does anyone know what will happen to the panels when the next big fire moves through this area?
275,000 is not all that much in the lad of millions.
This really has nothing to do with GM.
Did GM Authority get a call from the home office to push Brandon stories that were positive as they have requested from the Whitehouse?
I don’t think so, but I think GMauthority runs off cloudflair servers (aka go woke google) it’s go woke or go the way of Parler. The greater internet is one of the few industries ran like 1930-40’s Germany
less pollution; Less time waiting for coal trains; decades of low cost electricity and Jobs.
Everybody wins!
Correction:
Everybody wins! Except for Donald Trump and his supporters. They will always be Losers.
Donald trump has more money then you could ever dream of most would say that’s winning. I’d also say he has won because you are obsessed with him you help keep his name alive even though he isn’t president so yea that’s winning.
Mark
Trump has cursed his family name. From now until the end of time He will be remembered as “The Sore Loser.”
Still has more money then you could dream of and still has you talking about him. So again that’s winning, you will talk about trump until you are in the ground but nobody will remember you when you are gone or speak your name so again he’s winning. You can twist it as you see fit but the fact he has you saying his name constantly and you supposedly hate the guy yea he’s already won.
Mark,
I have enough money to live comfortably. I often eat out at nice restaurants, and often enjoy a few cocktails while I’m there.
Trump lives in a prison of his own making. Body guards accompany him everywhere he goes, and I’m sure most of his meals come with an extra topping of saliva. I wouldn’t switch places with him for any amount of money.
Living comfortably and being filthy rich are not even remotely the same and you know this. Peter every single living president has body guards they are secret service you knew this to. Obama, Clinton, bush and Biden when his term is up will also have them. In case you didn’t know it’s standard to get secret service protection for a president when you are out of office unless you request not to and not a single living president right now has requested not to. Also let me add nobody will know my name either when I’m in the ground point to that was trump Obama bush ect… they are all winning daily because people always talk about them so it is what it is.
The only one winning is China where most of these Solar panels are made.
Western companies located manufacturing in China because China had: a stable government; a good transportation system; low cost labor and a highly educated workforce.
Today labor cost have risen. The workforce is shrinking. Western companies are moving manufacturing out.
Solar Panels are cheap. Today most of them are made in China. 5 years from now, I think most solar panels will be made in Egypt.
I would like to see environmental BIG MONEY project accounting report law in place, for the public knowledge, passed on every future total final cost breakdown for these projects (and wind generators). It could show where all materials, raw minerals, all labor, all import materials, all exports materials, all companies’ roles.
I think the USA people could then see where to work, who to work for, what profession to choose, how to invest their 401ks, who to vote for, make for more industry competition, required maintenance, maintenance costs, and life span projection.
The big picture for Mother Earth and her inhabitants might not be so worth it for all.
I’ve seen projects like these and they cost more than they save. They also kill hundreds of birds every day !!!
I can’t wait to read all the comments that have nothing to do with GM. As soon as any political figure is mentioned, it is always a mess of Trump vs Biden and other crap. I can always count on the GM Authority trolls for some good comments with my morning coffee!
And for some reason, we can always count on GMA to bring up politically charged articles. That’s my question. Why??? This forum is supposed to be about trucks, sports cars, concepts and classics. Google must be pulling strings by a with their add service.
You don’t have to read the comments though do you? You could read the article and move on sounds like you just like to argue. What does your comment have to do with gm?
@ Mark , My Comment has nothing to with GM, same as yours! I like reading the comments as they make me laugh. I have no need to argue, this is just a website about cars…
A website about crap cars.
For people asking what this has to do with GM, this is a power source that can be used to charge electric vehicles.
Why is the federal government doing this? I believe Diablo Canyon was built by PG&E and the costs of its construction was bourne by their ratepayers. It’s being shut down and with it, ten percent of California’s electricity needs are going away because the state is now opposed to nuclear energy. So if Diablo goes away and a solar farm is being built, why isn’t PG&E paying for that? Why is it our collective responsibility nationally to build California a new energy plant because they decided they don’t want nuclear. Right now I’m paying through my power bill for Georgia Power to build Plant Vogtle which will supply my state’s future energy needs with a new nuclear plant. Yet, if I understand correctly, I’m also paying through Federal taxes for California to replace a nuclear plant.
Of course, as others have said, none of this has anything to do with gm. Are we going to start seeing articles about road construction projects now? They’re about as related to gm as this power producing facility.
You are correct on everything. The private sector should pay for this. My question is if the Federal government is paying for this are those things being made in the US?
Good question regarding why the federal government is doing this and not PG&E. The answer goes to what was NOT mentioned in the article which is the COST of these projects. If PG&E built these and the cost was passed on to the ratepayers it would be non-competitive with California’s already high electricity rates. Not only is the original build cost high but there is the solar cell degradation factor as well as ongoing maintenance costs for such simple things as cleaning the solar cell surfaces regularly. Finally, in some states (I do not know if California is one of them) there is a requirement of the utility that renewable energy sources are required to be 100% “backed-up” by conventional power plants which means that conventional electrical capacity cannot be retired in many cases (so their costs continue). Would love to see the true $ / kw/hr amortized over a 20 year time frame.
Am I the only one who understands the expected life of a solar panel? Solar panels degrade over time. The have a half life of 10-20 years depending on the grade and environment they are in. As this is out in the desert, we can especially this to probably loose 30% of its power in 10 years. Why does nobody make sense.
No I understand this too.
Same on wind mills as the blade have to regular be replaced and often they break down and many models there is a shortage of parts since the company that made them went belly up.
One in down town Cleveland has not run in years and is not expected to run since there are no parts to repair it.
There is no such thing as wind mills because they don’t mill wind. The correct name is wind powered turbine generators.
Am I the only one who understands the expected life of a solar panel? Solar panels degrade over time. The have a half life of 10-20 years depending on the grade and environment they are in. As this is out in the desert, we can exspect this to probably loose 30% of its power in 10 years. Why does nobody make sense.
That inoperable windmill in Cleveland is doing about as much good for the environment as the Hummer EV will.
Ahem! Well, at least they put these panels in a place that has plenty of intense Sunshine… As the payback will be less than 10 years in these locations it is at a minimum a ‘semi-smart’ thing to do.
What I find rather humorous is that NYC has authorized plenty of MUSTANG Mach-E taxicabs – that with Consolidated Edison’s extremely confiscatory rates (worse than PG&E mostly) their refueling cost will go up switching from Gasoline to electricity…
Unless, NYC subsidizes the refueling cost, which will just piss-off other NY ers who will know they are paying for all this largess indirectly.