US Federal Lands Can Host Over 7.7 TW Renewable Energy Capacity
Source：taiyangnews
NREL here shows the technical potential for various renewable energy technologies on federal lands in the US. (Photo Credit: NREL)
Key Takeaways
- More than 7.7 TW onshore renewable energy capacity can be installed on US federal lands, according to an NREL study
- It comprises 5,750 GW of utility-scale PV capacity on 44 million acres of land, the highest among all renewable energy technologies studied
- Even with more stringent siting constraints, the federal lands will still hold a technical potential of 1.75 TW for utility-scale solar and 70 GW for onshore wind
The US federal lands carry a technical potential to host more than 7.7 TW of onshore renewable energy capacity, according to a new interagency study led by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Only 0.5% of the total federal land area in the contiguous US can host 51 GW to 84 GW capacity by 2035. This will be enough to provide up to about 10% of renewable energy needed by the country to reach net-zero emissions in the electricity sector.
“The potential is far more than what will be needed to meet our future energy demands, creating opportunities for development that have low conflict with other uses,” said NREL’s Principal Investigator and Senior Energy Systems Researcher Trieu Mai.
So far, the US Department of the Interior has permitted more than 30 GW of clean energy projects on federal lands through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
Yet, at present, only 4% or 8.9 GW of the operational utility-scale onshore renewable energy capacity is located on federal lands in the country while 12% is used for oil drilling and 11% for natural gas production, according to the NREL study titled Land of Opportunity: Potential for Renewable Energy on Federal Lands.
The agency used a power sector model for each of the 7 scenarios to determine what energy technologies can be built and where across the country to meet the future energy demand. These were then downscaled to producer deployment estimates on federal lands administered by the BLM, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the US Forest Service, the US Department of Defense, and the US Department of Energy.
For utility-scale PV (UPV), the study estimates 44 million acres of federal land carries a technical potential for 5,750 GW. This covers the lower 48 states and the District of Columbia but excludes Alaska, Hawaii and US territories. Non-federal land, on the other hand, holds the potential for another 69.86 TW UPV.
For wind energy, the technical potential on federal lands is lower at 875 GW, but it can be installed on 43 million acres. For enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), it estimates a technical potential for 975 GW to be installed on 27 million acres and 130 GW of hydrothermal potential on 12 million acres.
Utility PV has the largest technical potential among renewable energy technologies to be hosted on US federal lands. (Photo Credit: NREL)
Even with more stringent siting constraints such as land use for conservation, livestock grazing, recreation, military use, etc., the federal lands will still hold a technical potential of 1.75 TW for utility-scale solar and 70 GW for onshore wind, point out the report writers.
The RE technical potential on federal lands is great, but only a small portion of the potential would be needed or developed to meet future energy demands, added the report writers. In central 3 scenarios out of the 7 studied in the report, NREL estimates between 51 GW and 84 GW to be installed by 2035, followed by a scenario that favors utility-scale solar and storage in which the deployment goes up to 81 GW to 128 GW.
In the highest deployment scenario where the siting is more constrained on non-federal land, it expects renewable energy deployment to increase to between 231 GW and 270 GW within the next 10 years.
NREL said that this is the first study that examines renewable energy development on federal lands for the entire contiguous US. Future analysis can assess the viability of specific areas or sites since federal lands also serve other public needs. The complete report is available on NREL’s website.
In a recent study, NREL also estimated the technical potential for floating solar in the US, estimating the country’s reservoirs to host between 861 GW DC and 1,042 GW DC capacity.