Solar Development to Speed Up Next Year

(MoneyWatch)  The United States government has finally decided to help lift some of the bureaucratic hassles involved with renewable energy, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar announced yesterday. The Bureau of Land Management, historically a somewhat obscure regulator, will work to expedite approval for over a dozen major solar projects on public land in six Western states.

The effort is just a start; the 13 projects will represent less than 10 percent of the 158 applications the BLM has on file. There are reports that some applications were placed by speculators who simply wanted to secure an early place in line for a process that could take years.

But quite a few valid companies are also likely to benefit from the go-ahead. Their ranks will include companies with new technology and plans for, collectively, several gigawatts of solar power: BrightSource Energy, First Solar (through its acquisition of Optisolar), Stirling Energy Systems and others seem likely to make it into the first round of approvals.

For the BLM, it's an expected move. The agency has had to adapt to the new demands of the renewable industry in a short time -- never an easy task for a bureaucracy. As more companies pile into solar power, the pressure will only increase on the BLM to unlock the millions of acres of public land under its control as quickly as possible without angering environmentalists or damaging marginal lands.

It's also interesting to speculate, though, that this might just be the first step of a government becoming interested in energy for the first time in decades. The cap-and-trade legislation that just passed in Congress also includes measures that would speed construction of coal plants, and quite a few Republican lawmakers seem interested in revitalizing nuclear power.

Doing all of the above requires both the consent and active participation of the government. For once, we may be about to have both.