California has had a lead role legislating Renewable Portfolio Standards(RPS), and their success has served as a model for other states and even the federal RPS that is in the Markey-Waxman bill circulating capitol hill. However, many large scale solar projects are finding that the permitting process to develop these projects is antiquated and arduous. This process is slogging down California’s ability to meet RPS mandates by 2020.
In the current regulatory environment, most utility scale photovoltaic projects are treated as any other development project. This means that solar developers have to jump through the same regulatory hoops that a housing or commercial builder would have to go through to get their projects started.
For solar, the ideal setting for a development is in a desert area that is relatively flat, hot, and sunny. However, in desert locations, developer’s are running into issues dealing with endangered species since the desert is home to many sensitive ecological environments. To compensate for ecosystem disturbance, some solar projects are finding that they are being regualted to provide mitigation areas of up to five times the project’s size, which makes most projects no longer financially feasible.
Difficulty complying with the Endangered Species Act, has moved many prospective developers to California’s agricultural land. California land use statues make this option unavailable for many solar developers aswell. The Williamson Act, which currently contracts two-thirds of California’s farm and ranch lands, provides a lower tax base for agricultural use of the land. However, the Williamson Act does not allow for solar developments on the land, because it is considered a non-agricultural venture. The Farm Bureau has also been opposed to changing land use statutes to allow large scale photovoltaic projects, although dialog between project developers and farm groups is moving toward a solution.
The clear winner given endangered species issues and land use statues, would be residential and commercial rooftop solar, but there is no way that growth in rooftop solar will be able to meet RPS standards on it’s own by 2020. California will have to make changes in the legislative and regulatory process in order to meet RPS goals. While agricultural lands and ecosystems with endangered species need to be protected, it is important the solar projects be able to navigate the permitting process without excessive hurdles.
