Biden Administration Expands Solar Development to 22 Million Acres of Federal Lands

The updated roadmap includes five additional states and focuses on lands within 10 miles of existing or planned transmission lines, moving away from sensitive resources.

The Biden administration has updated the roadmap for solar development to 22 million acres of federal lands in the US West, expanding the original six states to include five more.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory have determined that 700,000 acres of federal lands will be needed for solar farms over the next 20 years.
The updated roadmap focuses on lands within 10 miles of existing or planned transmission lines and moves away from lands with sensitive resources.
Under the current policy, there are at least 80 million acres of federal lands open to oil and gas development, which is 100 times the amount of public land available for solar.
BLM under the Biden administration has approved 47 clean energy projects and permitted 11,236 megawatts (MW) of wind, solar, and geothermal energy on public lands, enough to power more than 3.5 million homes.