The federal government could open up to 16 million acres of land to renewable energy development under a new agreement between the US departments of Defense and Interior, they said Monday.
The Memorandum of Understanding clarifies the status of land given to DOD by Interior's Bureau of Land Management for military purposes. The so-called "withdrawn lands" had been the subject of disagreement between the two departments about whether DOD could develop utility-scale renewable energy there, or if BLM should have a role.
The primary goal of those projects will be to provide independent sources of generation for defense installations, to insulate military bases from potential failures on the larger power grid, said Dorothy Robyn, DOD's undersecretary for installations and environment.
"We're primarily interested in buying power that we can use on our installations and continue to use if the grid goes down, but we want to develop projects at the economic scale," Robyn said Monday on a conference call with reporters.
The goal is for private companies to develop wind, solar and other renewable generation on the DOD land. If the power plants generate more energy than needed for the military base, they could sell energy back to the grid, Robyn said.
Later this week, she added, the US Army will release a request for proposals seeking $3-4 billion in private investment in renewables.
Currently, military bases rely on thousands of backup generators, to insure against blackouts, Robyn said.
"They're expensive, they're not particularly environmentally friendly and we want to be in a position where we can rely more on a combination of micro-grids, which is a game-changing tech that we're helping to pioneer with renewable energy," Robyn said.
According to the MOU, the two departments will jointly head an offshore wind forum to promote information sharing between the military, other federal agencies and private industry, by October 1. The Department of Energy and other interested parties would also be invited.
DOD and DOI will develop a pilot process for authorizing solar power projects at the Air Force Barry Goldwater Range East and the Marine Corps Barry Goldwater Range West, both in Arizona; the Army's Fort Irwin Front Gate, Red Pass Lake and Goldstone Sites, in California; and the Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.
Finally, the MOU calls for the interagency working group on energy permitting in Alaska, which includes representatives from DOD and DOI, to work to increase renewable energy development there.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, hailed the agreement.
"This is a landmark arrangement and it's a clear recognition that renewable energy can contribute greatly to the energy security independence by defense installation, especially here in the Southwest," Reid said.
Reid said the military lands could generate "easily 10,000 MW" based on a January Pentagon study. The study found that military bases in Southern California alone could house 7,000 MW of solar generation. DOD has not performed a comprehensive study of the potential generation on the withdrawn lands, Robyn said.
