Tag Archive for: solar energy

Electrical transmission tower and power lines

This week the Department of Energy (DOE) announced more than $366 million for 17 projects across rural and remote American communities. The funding will accelerate the development of clean, sustainable energy deployment with community driven projects such as building microgrids to ensure energy security with reliable, affordable energy.

Rural and remote communities face a unique set of energy challenges due to their small populations and isolation from larger electrical systems, resulting in higher electric bills, unreliable energy supplies, and/or no access to electricity at all. Read more

BLM proposes solar development plans on selected public lands

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) recently released a draft roadmap — known as the updated Western Solar Plan — that outlines proposed solar energy development across the West.  The plan is designed to expand solar energy production overall, and to streamline siting and project permitting on U.S. public lands.

The plan is an update of BLM’s 2012 Western Solar Plan, that identified land having high solar potential and low resource conflicts to guide responsible solar development in the original six states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah. The updated plan adds areas in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming. Read more