Renewable Energy Zoning & Permitting Essential Principles

Renewable energy projects are complex, long-term, require significant capital investment and typically involve a wide variety of stakeholders. In an industry that is undergoing swift and unprecedented development, the risk of disputes arising during each phase of a project is high. The scale and speed of development, set against an ever-changing regulatory backdrop, requires careful thought to ensure that parties adequately consider and account for these risks. In this session, we consider the current renewables sector, review the specific risks associated with renewables projects and then assess potential legal and contractual mechanisms for mitigating such risks.

• Road use agreements: special provisions for road use and fees
• Recent developments in agreements with landowners and stakeholders
• Legal hurdles and potential solutions in renewable energy development
• Risk mitigation approaches to developing wind, solar, and battery storage
• Overcoming challenges to renewable energy projects

The federal government owns about 640 million acres of land in the United States, about 28% of the total land area of 2.27 billion acres. The majority (92%) of federal lands are located in Alaska and western states, managed by a range of federal agencies. This presentation provides an overview of some of the key issues specific to working on federally managed lands in the western United States, which can require involvement of one to multiple federal agencies for a single project.

In 1971, the Arizona Legislature created the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee to review construction of new major electric facilities in Arizona and make recommendations to the Arizona Corporation Commission. Today, the Arizona Power Plant and Transmission Line Siting Committee has before it a robust slate of electric infrastructure projects looking to enter Arizona. Due to the surge in new technology and infrastructure, the relevant statutes and regulations no longer operate effectively and efficiently in reviewing projects and are being updated to accommodate the evolution of the energy industry. This session will provide attendees with an overview of the power plant and line siting process, including discussion of relevant zoning, permitting, and land use considerations.

Local permitting of ground mounted solar energy generation facilities, whether DG or utility-scale in size, is often a two-step process with a zoning action being the first, followed by local land use permits and approvals. In addition, it is typical to have County, State and Federal level permitting/approval requirements by various authorities having jurisdictions (“AHJ’s”). This session will explore how zoning affects the engineering/design and development of such projects and informs the permitting process. Topics included in the presentation are:

• State level provisions affecting local zoning
• Purpose of local solar ordinances and summary of “typical” design and performance standards
• Overview of common permitting process for both Greenfield and Brownfield solar energy development, including:
  • Zoning actions/creative solutions – use variance, waiver, zoning amendment, PUD, rezoning
  • Local permits/approvals (e.g. site plan review, Special or Conditional Use permit, environmental quality review, if applicable)
  • Miscellaneous reviews and approvals (e.g. County Planning, SHPO, Endangered/Threatened Species reviews, FAA screening)
• Environmental permitting for regulated sites (e.g. landfills, Brownfields, RCRA, Superfund)

This presentation will cover legislative and permitting considerations for battery energy storage projects in popular renewable energy states such as California, Texas, and New York. Some topics that will be covered include:

• Examine regulatory and permitting rules for energy storage
• BESS resistance in counties
• Why is it difficult to get approval
• Permitting best practices for approval

This session will explore how large language models and AI can solve the complex puzzle of solar and storage permitting and zoning. Topics to be discussed will be the bottlenecks in renewables deployment caused by paperwork and regulatory complexity, real-world case studies of successful AI implementation amount utility and community solar developers, and demonstration on how the latest technology can help navigate the patchwork of 3,000+ counties, 20,000+ permit jurisdictions, and 2,000+ energy regulators across the US.

Offshore wind development is a unique renewable energy sector that intersects various regulatory bodies, including federal, state, and local authorities. The permitting process is often multi-layered and involves extensive coordination across agencies, such as the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, state environmental agencies, local municipal bodies, and non-governmental organizations. This presentation will explore the complex landscape of multi-jurisdictional permitting for offshore wind, focusing on the following key areas:

• Federal vs. state permitting frameworks
• Local permitting with conservation commissions
• Stakeholder coordination
• The role of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and mapping tools in addressing local environmental concerns
• Overview of the offshore wind project lifecycle
• Cross-jurisdictional case studies
• Emerging trends and challenges