Utility Scale Solar Energy Workshop

Agenda

The workshop provided BIA and other DOI staff with a comprehensive, high-level understanding of what utility-scale solar energy development entails. Topics included BIA’s renewable energy development process, project financing, basics of utility-scale solar technologies, potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures, the development process, concerns and priorities of other federal agencies, and transmission development.

Presentations
Concentrating Solar Power Overview Arizona Public Service's Interconnection Process
Financing - Tax Issues BLM Pre-application Meeting
Financing Options Cultural Resources and Native American Concerns
Market Assessment Ecological Resources: Impacts and Mitigation
NEPA Best Practices Visual Resources: Impacts and Mitigation
Overview of the BLM Solar Energy Program Water Resources: Impacts and Mitigation
Power Purchase Agreements Role of the National Park Service
Solar Resources and PV Overview Project Development Process
Industry Perspective - K Road Gila Bend: Solar Field Overlay Zone
Maps for the K Road Project U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Transmission Overview Western's Interconnection Process

Handouts
Transmission flow chart: part of John Steward's presentation
Western LGIP Process Diagram: Part of John Steward's presentation
Summary of Solar and transmission regional initiatives
California ISO News Release
EPA RePowering America's Lands
DOI News Release for AZ RDEP Record of Decision
Energy Transport Corridor Siting for Tribal Planners
EPA Fact Sheet on Reuse of Contaminated Lands
Fact sheet on AZ Restoration Design Energy Project
DOE's Tribal Assistance Program Technical Assistance Form

TERA

Title V, Section 503 of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (Public Law 109-58) requires the Secretary of the Interior to oversee the review, evaluation, and implementation of Tribal Energy Resource Agreements (TERA). A TERA provides a tribe with the option of entering into energy-related business agreements and leases and for granting rights-of-way for pipelines, electric transmission, and distribution lines without the review and approval of the Secretary of the Interior for each proposed project.

25 CFR Part 224 (.pdf)- 218 KB Tribal Energy Resource Agreements Under the Indian Tribal Energy Development and Self-Determination Act; Final Rule

Indian Mineral Development Act of 1982