From telegraph.co.uk…

The US government is putting a hold on new solar energy projects on public land for two years so it can study the environmental impact of sun-driven plants.

The Bureau of Land Management says the moratorium on solar proposals is needed to determine how a new generation of large-scale projects could affect plants and wildlife on the land it manages.

 Brad Collins, of the American Solar Energy Society isn’t pleased, and is quoted as saying “If there is an environmental concern, that can be addressed without putting a halt to this technology and helping to impact our greenhouse gas emissions and the environmental degradation from coal-fired and natural gas plants,”. I have to agree with him.

There of course will be some environmental effects from large scale solar plants, but since they push power out to the public using the same methods as currently used power generation plants, the only environmental effects it could have that would differ from current coal-fired and other currently used systems would be in the solar arrays themselves. While there may be heat issues, or other effects on the nearby wildlife due to the amount of reflected light, the effects would be drastically less complex to study then other forms of power generation already in use. Actually halting new projects is serious overkill in this case. There could easily be studies done in tandem with current and future solar development projects both in the US and other countries. There is simply no reason at all to completely halt new projects, especially when solar development is about to hit critical mass. This could set back solar technology and development FAR more than 2 years in the long run.

The US has been ass backwards when it comes to promoting and developing solar technology, so this move is hardly that surprising, but it is MASSIVELY counter-productive to their goals of moving away from fossil fuels and other non-renewables.

I hope this is cut short and new projects can get going again soon. It’s nice to know that at least projects that have already put in proposals and applications for use of government land will get their chance…but it’s a small consolation given the circumstances.

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