Major solar developers, conservation groups, agricultural organizations, environmental and environmental justice groups, and tribal entities have announced an agreement to advance large-scale U.S. solar development while championing land conservation and supporting local community interests.
The agreement is the result of a 20-month “Solar Uncommon Dialogue” convened by Stanford’s Woods Institute for the Environment, the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA), and The Nature Conservancy (TNC).
Over the next 10 years, U.S. solar energy output is expected to increase five-fold. The rapid increase in utility-scale solar also means that the industry must address various issues, including agricultural land conversion, wildlife and habitat impacts, and community engagement. The Solar Uncommon Dialogue agreement stresses that the development of large solar projects must be transparent, equitable and efficient and acknowledges that this will require many trade-offs.
Signatories to the Solar Uncommon Dialogue agreement have committed to improving large-scale solar development based on the “3Cs”: climate, conservation, and community.
- Climate emphasizes minimizing carbon emissions through clean energy sources, like solar energy and other tools, including natural climate solutions;
- Conservation seeks to minimize impacts on natural and working lands; and
- Community commits to equitable distribution of renewable energy project benefits.
The signatories are convening six working groups that will address key issues and opportunities including community engagement, siting-related risk assessment and decision-making, energy and agricultural technologies, tribal relations, and policy solutions.
These working groups will focus on advancing the 3Cs via improved public participation practices, solar siting mechanisms, regulation, financial incentives, information tools, and other means. The goal is to create best practices that solar companies, local governments, and other stakeholders can use to effectively site solar projects.
“Major U.S. solar projects are critical to fighting climate change but are increasingly opposed across the nation due to significant community and land conservation concerns,” said Stanford energy scholar Dan Reicher, who launched and leads the Solar Uncommon Dialogue. “It’s exciting how motivated the parties are to avoid these conflicts and develop high-impact solutions – a triple play for climate, conservation, and community.”
The post SEIA and Partners Balancing Boom in Solar with Need for Conservation appeared first on Solar Industry.
SEIA and Partners Balancing Boom in Solar with Need for Conservation
Vestas Turbine Tops 199-Meter Tower, OECD Flags China Subsidies
Allen covers a Vestas turbine on a 199-meter hub in Bavaria, Dominion’s 44 turbines up at Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, an OECD report on Chinese subsidies, and Nordex’s push to keep non-Western turbines out of Europe.
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Vestas Turbine Tops 199-Meter Tower, OECD Flags China Subsidies
I subscribe to a social media feed called “I Love Old Homes” because I have an appreciation for the history of architecture, especially that which was built in what is now the United States between the late 17th Century and the 1930s. At the risk of coming off as weird, I try to picture myself living in some of these places, and some of these daydreams are quite pleasant indeed.
At left, we see something from the “beaux arts movement” in the Gilded Age of the late 19th Century that I find abhorrent. In its essence, it says that I have disdain for those less fortunate.
You don’t have a fireplace to keep you warm as you walk up one of your many staircases? What a tragedy.
We live in times when 1.5 billion people can’t get a glass of clean water and you want to live like this? You don’t care that the planet we live on is becoming more inhospitable with each passing year, as long as you can live in the most extreme upper end of luxury? There are rooms in your house that you’ve never even stepped in? Some that you can’t actually find?
Apparently this works for some, but not for me.
Renewable Energy
ACORE Statement on Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act Substitute Amendment from President and CEO Ray Long
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Policy -
Press Releases
ACORE Statement on Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act Substitute Amendment from President and CEO Ray Long
WASHINGTON, D.C. — ACORE supports the Senate negotiators’ agreed-upon Substitute Amendment for the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act (BAAJA), and we urge swift passage of the bill.
This Substitute Amendment represents corrections and clarifications that maintain the bill’s goals — to fix our woefully broken permitting system. The Amendment specifically improves the transmission provisions, allowing us to make much-needed upgrades to our grid so we can build more clean energy.
This bill will help to put downward pressure on energy prices, improve our electricity reliability, and ensure we have enough power to keep the lights on for families and factories. The status quo of high power prices and anticipated energy shortages is unacceptable. This bill will streamline the build-out of our power infrastructure. The time is now.
Let’s get this bill passed and start building.
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About ACORE
ACORE is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that operates at the intersection of affordability, reliability, and clean energy deployment. Our work is focused on stabilizing energy prices, strengthening the electric grid, and driving investment in cost-effective technologies to ensure that clean energy delivers for people, businesses, and the U.S. economy.
ACORE convenes a membership spanning the full clean energy value chain—investors and financiers, developers and EPCs, hyperscalers and energy buyers, manufacturers and advisors. Our members were directly involved in more than 80% of the American clean energy infrastructure projects added to the grid in 2025. We champion all clean energy technologies including transmission, solar, wind, storage, geothermal, hydropower, nuclear, and beyond. ACORE members are the companies investing in and building tomorrow’s electric power system, accelerating infrastructure development, strengthening grid reliability, and enhancing domestic competitiveness.
Media Contacts:
Tamari Palmer
Associate, Communications
palmer@acore.org
Chris Higginbotham
VP, Communications
higginbotham@acore.org
The post ACORE Statement on Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act Substitute Amendment from President and CEO Ray Long appeared first on ACORE.
https://acore.org/news/acore-statement-on-bipartisan-american-affordability-and-jobs-act-substitute-amendment-from-president-and-ceo-ray-long/
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