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According to the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, millions of acres of federal land are suitable for renewable energy, with less than 5% needed to be carbon-free by 2035. The United States could likely meet its goal of 100 percent carbon-free electricity by 2035 by using less than 5 percent of eligible federal land for renewable energy facilities, researchers at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) have found. Motivated by the growing interest in renewable energy development, researchers designed the Land of Opportunity: Potential for Renewable Energy on Federal Lands study to answer two main questions: What is the technical potential for renewable energy on federal lands contiguous with the United States? How much renewable energy capacity is projected to be developed on federal lands under decarbonization scenarios for the United States? Currently, only 4% (8.9 GW) of onshore utility-scale renewable energy capacity in the US is located on federal lands, compared with 12% for oil extraction and 11% for natural gas production, according to NREL. Technical potential is the maximum amount of a resource that is available after location and other development constraints. It can be measured in terms of surface area, nominal capacity or electrical generation. According to the report, less than 5% of federal land suitable for renewable energy development is needed to meet future energy demand. Under most scenarios, fewer than two million of these acres (1 acre = 0.4 hectares) would need to be developed to achieve carbon-free electricity by 2035 under most of the scenarios the researchers developed. Of the two million acres of federal land needed to achieve carbon-free electricity over the next ten years, less than 0.2 percent (815,000 acres) of federal land would be permanently disturbed by solar, wind, and geothermal facilities. In total, NREL estimates there is technical potential for 5,750 GW of utility-scale solar power on 44 million acres of developable federal land across the United States. (While this article focuses on the studys findings on solar power, the researchers also looked at wind, hydrothermal, and geothermal power generation.) Recent federal efforts to increase clean energy are due in part to declining costs of wind and solar generation, as well as clean energy policies at the state level. According to the report, there were 29 state renewable portfolio standards and 16 clean energy standards enacted in 29 states through 2024. “DOE is a data-driven agency, and the data shows that the nation’s growing energy demands can be met with cleaner, cheaper, more resilient energy,” U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer M. Granholm said in a news release. Researchers incorporated insights from the Department of Energy, Department of Defense (DOD), and other federal agencies to develop a geospatial model to estimate the technical potential available for onshore renewable energy facilities. Each agency has its own mission priorities, which impacts how they manage their land, said Anthony Lopez, a principal investigator at NREL. Researchers determined the distribution of technical potential among lands managed by federal agencies based on the amount of land managed, the suitability of the land for RE development, and renewable energy resource and technology. “We determined the technical potential by limiting renewable energy development based on other land uses, such as recreation, historic preservation, conservation and critical habitat,” Lopez said. “Even accounting for the other uses, we found that much of the remaining land area would be suitable for renewable energy development.” However, public lands serve many public needs, so NREL said that “any decision about their use involves trade-offs.” Land managers must balance multiple priorities, and may have little experience in renewable energy development. “Collaboration is crucial to help these agencies navigate competing interests and integrate renewable energy development responsibly,” said Melinda Marquis, an energy systems researcher at NREL. The Department of Defense is the largest consumer of energy in the U.S., responsible for about 1% of total energy used and 77% of the energy used by the federal government. Previous NREL research published in December found between 861 GW and 1,042 GW of potential floating solar generating capacity in federally controlled U.S. reservoirs. |
