Harvesting Clean EnergyHow California Can Deploy Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects on Appropriate FarmlandOctober 2011About this ReportThis policy paper is the ninth in a series of reports on how climate change will create opportunities for specific sectors of the business community and how policy-makers can facilitate those oppor-tunities. Each paper results from one-day workshop discussions that include representatives from key business, academic, and policy sectors of the targeted industries. The workshops and resulting policy papers are sponsored by Bank of America and produced by a partnership of the UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment and UCLA School of Law’s Environmen-tal Law Center & Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environment.AuthorshipThe author of this policy paper is Ethan N. Elkind, Bank of America Climate Change Research Fel-low for UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE) and UCLA School of Law’s Environmental Law Center & Emmett Center on Climate Change and the Environ-ment. Additional contributions to the report were made by Steven Weissman of the UC Berkeley School of Law and Sean Hecht and Cara Horowitz of the UCLA School of Law.AcknowledgmentsThe author and organizers are grateful to Bank of America for its generous sponsorship of the work-shop series and input into the formulation of both the workshops and the policy paper. We would specifically like to thank Anne Finucane, Global Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer, and Chair of the Bank of America Environmental Council, for her commitment to this work.In addition, we are grateful to Claire Van Camp for designing this policy paper. We also thank Steve Weissman for facilitating the workshop.Finally, the UC organizers gratefully acknowledge Tina Andolina, Lisa Belenky, Michael M. Delbar, Kim Delfino, Cornelius Gallagher, John R. Gamper, Andy Horne, Brian Leahy, Alex Levinson, Be-linda Morris, Bill Powers, Jeff Roberts, Renée Robin, Darrel Sweet, Jim Woodruff, Manal Yamout, Lydia Zabrycki, Carl Zichella, and Jay Ziegler for their insight and commentary at the March 14, 2011 Climate Change Workshop that informed this analysis.For more information, contact Ethan Elkind at [email protected] or [email protected] Law \ UCLA Law1Berkeley Law \ UCLA Law Harvesting Clean Energy: How California Can Deploy Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects on Appropriate FarmlandExecutive Summary: Where to Plant RenewablesCalifornia’s ambitious renewable energy goals will require the deployment of large-scale renewable energy facilities. To meet the target of 33 percent renewable energy by 2020, Governor Jerry Brown has called for 8,000 megawatts of energy from such large-scale installations (where one megawatt provides roughly enough energy to power 750 homes for a year). In order to produce the required energy in the next decade, developers of these facilities may need as much as 100,000 acres of land across the state.While the state and federal governments have strived to accommodate utility-scale renewable energy projects on public lands, developers in California are increasingly looking to agricultural land to site their projects. Since the conditions of the lands may limit alternative uses, farmers and ranchers of some of these lands have determined that renewable energy facilities provide the best opportunity to recoup their capital investment. In the Central Valley and Imperial Valley in particular, developers are proposing large-scale solar projects at an increasing rate. Meanwhile, up to a quarter million acres of impaired lands in the Westlands Water District in the Central Valley may soon have to be retired from agricultural production,1 leaving significant tracts available for renewable energy production.However, building large-scale solar facilities on farmland – whether impaired, marginal, or otherwise degraded – can compromise other valuable resources. Agricultural land in the state has been steadily disappearing over the years in the face of encroaching urban development and other pressures. Over 200,000 acres of irrigated farmland were lost between 2006 and 2008 alone, while 1.3 million acres have been taken out of agricultural use since tracking began in 1984, a rate of approximately one square mile every four days.2 As result, the state has policies in place to protect prime food-producing regions from these pressures. In addition, many of these agricultural lands also have significant biological value, providing habitat for threatened and endangered species that have adapted to the agricultural use. Consequently, some proposed large-scale projects on agricultural lands have faced permit delays and litigation due to challenges related to agricultural and biological impacts. California therefore has a strong interest in siting utility-scale renewable energy projects on viable parcels that retain little or no agricultural or biological value. Projects on these sites may have fewer environmental impacts – meaning less mitigation, fewer permitting delays, and a shorter development horizon. But many renewable energy developers lack incentives or opportunity to propose projects first in these areas. State and local governments must therefore provide direction, mapping, and incentives to facilitate beneficial project site selection and avoid permit delays, litigation, and the potential for inefficient use of existing electricity infrastructure.Berkeley Law \ UCLA Law 2 Harvesting Clean Energy: How California Can Deploy Large-Scale Renewable Energy Projects on Appropriate FarmlandTop Five Barriers to Deploying Large-Scale Renewable Energy Facilities on Appropriate Farmland in CaliforniaTo address the problem, renewable energy developers, agricultural leaders, environmentalists, and federal, state, and local officials gathered at the UC Berkeley School of Law in March 2011. The group identified the key challenges to deploying large-scale renewable facilities in the most appropriate agricultural areas and suggested strategies for overcoming them. The group focused on five key barriers hindering appropriate renewable energy deployment:1) Lack of Definition of Suitable Farmland for Solar Development: State