The renewable energy side of President Obama’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy received a significant boost in the past two weeks, with a veritable relay of Department of Energy, Interior and Defense actions on clean energy.

On July 24, the Department of Energy (DOE) and Department of the Interior (DOI) released the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for solar energy development in six southwestern states—Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.  The Final PEIS identifies 17 “Solar Energy Zones,” totaling about 285,000 acres of public lands, as priority areas for utility-scale solar development, with the potential for additional zones through ongoing regional planning processes.  The identified Solar Energy Zones (see map) will have access to existing or planned transmission, relatively minimal resource conflicts, and incentives for development.  This analysis should make for faster, smarter permitting of large-scale solar projects on public lands.

Two weeks later, DOI and the Department of Defense (DOD) announced that they signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to encourage development of renewable energy projects on public lands dedicated to defense-related purposes.  The MOU is intended to strengthen the nation’s energy security and reduce the U.S. military’s utility costs, estimated at $4 billion per year.

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