Siting Renewable Energy Right
This new project has three components. First, Wild Utah Project and our Partner Utah Clean Energy have been actively engaged in the Utah Renewable Energy Zone Process in order to use our respective expertise to ensure responsible renewable energy siting in Utah. Second, we are currently creating a set of Best Management Practices on how to develop renewable energy while also protecting wildlife habitat. Third, we are facilitating the engagement of our other partners in the decision making process for siting renewable energy on public lands in order to ensure that conservation issues are addressed.
Positively affecting the UREZ process. The state of Utah is actively working to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy sources including large scale facilities in yet-to-be-finalized renewable energy development zones in the state. These efforts are in keeping with the climate change response described by the Western Regional Climate Initiative (of which Utah is a member), the recommendations of former Governor Huntsman’s Blue Ribbon Climate Advisory Panel, the Western Governors’ Association Western Renewable Energy Zone (WREZ) initiative, and recent Utah legislation designed to develop renewable energy resources. Utah’s goal is to be 20% more efficient in the use of energy and to produce 20% of Utah’s electricity from renewable energy sources by 2025.
The Utah Renewable Energy Zone (UREZ) Task Force is charged with identifying potential large scale energy development sites in Utah in order to meet the “20% by 2025” goal. This Task Force is made up of 20 members, including utilities, renewable energy developers, government representatives, and energy advocates. UREZ Phase 1 identified potential energy zones in Utah with characteristics suitable for utility scale renewable energy development. The objectives of UREZ Phase 2, begun in 2009, include: (1) Identifying policies or market mechanisms that would facilitate transmission planning and permitting for renewable energy projects; (2) Quantifying cost-effective generation potential; and (3) Identifying and modeling the transmission structure necessary to bring renewable energy resources to market.
Wild Utah Project has been playing an important role with the UREZ task force. It is important that Utah’s public lands and wildlife advocates become actively engaged in the early phases of the renewable energy zone selection process. That participation will help ensure that the projects are developed in a responsible manner and will help avoid conflicts with wildlife or wildlands that may prevent or delay renewable energy and transmission development. As part of the comment period for the most recent phase 2 UREZ report, we submitted a map showing how proposed renewable energy zones and potential solar and wind capacity overlaps with the Citizens’ Red Rock Wilderness Proposal, and a map showing the overlap with critically rare Utah wildlife species. We were actually pleased to see that there is not all that much overlap with the potential renewable sites and these important wild, and wildlife habitat, areas.
Best Management Practices: planning conservation early. Currently, conservation advocates lack a comprehensive set of Best Management Practices designed to minimize the adverse impacts of wind, geothermal and solar energy development projects on wildlife and wildlife habitat. Given the lasting impacts that renewable energy projects will have on Utah's wildlands and wildlife, it is critical that well informed decisions are made today. That is why creating Best Management Practices for where and how best to site renewable energy facilities is crucial at the initial stages of the process. Based on our network of scientists that helped develop Best Management Practices for off-road vehicle management and the assessment of the health of streams, we are bringing the best conservation science to the process of choosing a site, as well as the construction and operation of renewable facilities destined for wild places. With our connections to the broader environmental community, our GIS expertise, and our knowledge of conservation biology principles and practices, Wild Utah Project is in a unique position to create practical Best Management Practices that will avoid or mitigate future conflicts with wildlife and other critical environmental values. These Best Management Practices, completed this past summer, will help guide preliminary site studies for energy potential as well as provide key ecological background data. These Practices will also assist in making appropriate decisions relative to siting renewable energy facilities, as well as developing and operating those sites in an ecologically sound manner. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE NEW, COLOR PHOTO VERSION these new Best Management Practices!
Ensuring conservation issues are addressed as we promote renewable energy. There is a need to track and respond to specific renewable energy proposals as they arise. Wild Utah Project is registered as an interested party with each federal land manager in Utah regarding renewable energy siting. And, we are in the midst of completing a review of all public lands applications for renewable energy siting projects, as well as assembling preferred management stipulations for a typical site. Similar to processes set forth in oil and gas development EISs, the inclusion of certain stipulations and studies should be recommended before site development commences. The idea is that, with the help of our partners, Wild Utah will be standing by to provide conservation analysis of proposed sites for inclusion in agency decision making processes. We will encourage the agencies to include conservation stipulations once a decision is implemented. And we will ensure that conservation issues are addressed for transmission line considerations on public land relative to renewable energy development.
