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Citing Need for Assessments, US Freezes Solar Energy Projects
Friday 27 June 2008
by: Dan Frosch, The New York Times
Nevada Solar One power plant opened in February 2008. The 400-acre, 64-megawatt, solar power plant is the first built in the US in 17 years and is the third largest in the world. The plant produces energy to power about 14,000 homes. Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power
plants, the federal government has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years. (Photo: Reuters) Denver - Faced with a surge in the number of proposed solar power plants, the federal government
has placed a moratorium on new solar projects on public land until it studies their environmental impact, which is expected to take about two years.
The Bureau of Land Management says an extensive environmental study is needed to determine how large solar plants might affect millions of acres it oversees in six Western states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
But the decision to freeze new solar proposals temporarily, reached late last month, has caused widespread concern in the alternative-energy industry, as fledgling solar companies must wait to see if they can realize their hopes of harnessing power from swaths of sun-baked public land, just as the demand for viable alternative energy is accelerating.
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