Lewis Roca Blog

Louisiana has joined the growing number of states requiring solar producers to provide financial security for clean-up costs associated with shutting down their facilities.

The Pennsylvania legislature is weighing two bills that require decommissioning plans for solar energy projects, and the debate over them among lawmakers illustrates the challenges associated with developing a solution to this growing issue in the renewable energy industry.

On March 18, 2022, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) released its Photovoltaics End-of-Life Action Plan.

As renewable energy projects approach the end of their lifespan, companies may face various legal issues associated with the decommissioning or repowering processes, some of which may lead to litigation.

On December 21, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a Notice in the Federal Register calling for expressions of interest and nominations for utility-scale solar development on parcels of land within seven identified solar energy zones (“SEZ”) on a combined 89,589 acres of public land. The seven SEZs include Antonito Southeast, DeTilla Gulch, and Los Mogotes East in Colorado; Dry Lake Valley North, Gold Point, and Millers in Nevada; and Afton in New Mexico.

An eye towards sustainability has always been at the forefront of the renewable energy industry, but in many cases, technology was not able to catch up to the good intentions of the industry until recently.

As industry leaders and businesses tackle the question of how to decommission, repower, or redevelop our renewable energy generation technology that has reached the end of its useful life, important considerations must be weighed.

As more states continue to adopt and consider rules for renewable energy facility decommissioning, they do so against the backdrop of the existing federal financial assurance rules implemented by the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) (and, for offshore facilities, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management).

The first commercial wind and solar power generation facilities in the United States were constructed in the early-1980s. Since then, hundreds of acres of solar farms and thousands of individual wind turbines have been installed around the country largely as a result of maturing technologies, declining power prices, state renewable energy portfolio requirements and goals, and growing public interest in clean energy.