A Western Renewable Energy Zones (WREZ) Phase 1 Report lists 54 locations between British Columbia in the north and New Mexico in the south that the Western Governor’s Association (WGA) and various energy groups (including renewable groups) pinpoint as prime locations for the development of solar, wind, geothermal, hydro and biomass projects.
It doesn’t list Pueblo, Colorado, and Pueblo County Public Works Director Greg Severance wants to know why, particularly since the Pueblo Chemical Depot – a chemical weapons storage depot – has hundreds of acres of unused land sitting idle that could be devoted to commercial solar installations.
Actually, the reasons why the Depot was excluded are fairly self-evident. The agency managing the land, the Pueblo Depot Reuse Authority, typically has to go through the Defense Department to make any major land-use changes. This can be a long and arduous process. For example, the Reuse Authority spent seven years trying to include vacant rail spurs in the master plan in order to start sub-leasing track to a Texas firm. The plan was finally approved in 2006.
More recently, Helios Energy attempted to buy land at the facility, but was stalled by the fact that the facility will be in a quagmire of conflicting dominions until the last of the stockpiled weapons is destroyed, sometime between 2017 and 2020.
Helios had previously opted to go the lease route, but found that said lease – for 25 years under a power purchase agreement (PPA) with Xcel Energy – would likely be invalid, since the Reuse Authority might not be a viable agency once the mustard gas was disposed of.
Currently, Senator Mark Udall (D-CO) is attempting to put through legislation that would transfer surplus depot land to the agency that currently sub-leases facilities and other Depot property to private tenants, and one other firm has approached the Depot’s Reuse Authority with an eye to building a commercial solar installation.
The Pueblo question is not, however, uppermost in Severance’s mind. He also wants to know why much of Colorado was largely ignored – a premise supported by Todd Hartman, spokesman for the governor’s energy office, who confirmed that the study left out much of the state because it did not have strong representation, with only one member from the (Colorado) Governor’s Energy Office on a steering committee of 28 members.
Severance, who admits he didn’t even hear about the WREZ report until he attended a governors’ conference meeting in Park City, Utah, suspects the problem may lie with the fact that the Colorado portion of the study was done by a contractor.
Severance had since been in touch with Colorado Governor Bill Ritter’s office, and his letter concerning the oversight points out that the Army acknowledges 21,693 acres of Depot land stand unused. In addition, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory – which has 7 out of 17 of its solar radiance monitoring stations (MIDC) in Colorado – has already listed Pueblo and several other areas as excellent resources for solar generation.
Even more important, according to Severance, is the fact that Pueblo and surrounding areas already have the transmission infrastructure a number of the 54 locations lack. However, his arguments may be moot, since Interior Secretary has already “fast-tracked” 21,000 acres in Colorado for solar development. Just not necessarily the same 21,000 acres.
In terms of size, the largest planned solar farm in the United States (and possibly the world) is Rancho Cielo in Belen, New Mexico. When completed, this thin-film installation by Signet Solar will provide 600 megawatts of electricity on a mere 700 acres. Think what Signet could do with 35 times as much space!
