Solar Energy to be Subject of Study by ELI

The Environmental Law Institute has recently initiated a year-long National Science Foundation-funded project to investigate impediments to and incentives for solar energy development.

Unlike earlier solar power research which has tended to concentrate on technological developments or on pure economic incentives, the Institute's study will focus on land use problems associated with the introduction of solar energy on a widespread basis, emphasizing the legal and institutional impediments and incentives to private sector development. The project will investigate the relationship between the specialized needs of solar technology and land use controls. In addition, the study will explore other issues which do not fall within traditional definitions of "land use practices," including such potential impediments as the attitudes of land use officials toward innovative technologies.

Colorado will serve as a case study of the effect of governmental structure and decision making as they affect solar development both on individual structures and over considerable acreage. This state is representative both of the Southwest and of the nation as a whole. The entire Southwest region is under growing pressure to develop its resources. Colorado is particularly sensitive to these increasing pressures because of the concern of many of its citizens for preservation of the local environment. As a result, a political atmosphere has developed within the state in which positive programs encouraging environmentally sound energy development have high probability of early acceptance.

From the national perspective, Colorado is undergoing rapid development and has a combination of highly urbanized areas together with vast rural expanses. There are also substantial federal holdings within the state which enrich the data base in regard to land use conflicts. Because of the existence of these diverse elements within the state of Colorado, the results of this study will be of significance in many other areas of the nation as well.

The Institute's solar energy project will be an interdisciplinary endeavor. The research team which will conduct the study includes two lawyers, a political scientist and a solar specialist, Karin Halvorson Hillhouse, who has experience in evaluating a broad range of institutional impediments to the widespread application of solar energy.

Four principal avenues of research will be pursued. First, the research team will analyze three or more selected areas, including at least one urban area, one urbanizing area, and one rural area, in Colorado to determine the locus of decision-making power and planning authority as they relate to possible constraints on the demand for solar energy. They will select areas which present a variety of legal and institutional problems likely to arise in relation to the introduction of solar energy.

Second, the study team will conduct extensive interviews with state, local, federal and regional officials to determine legal and institutional difficulties, both actual and perceived, which solar consumers are likely to encounter and possible ways to alleviate them. These interviews will function to provide a professional assessment of the possible range of operating costs of the various incentives programs which are developed during the research phases of the study.

Third, the study will analyze the case law on (a) property rights as they may relate to utilizing solar energy; (b) less-than-fee interests in property; (c) the constitutional reach of the police power in responding to new and pressing social needs; and (d) the uses, powers and limitations of zoning, subdivision regulations, and licensing procedures of local buidling departments.

Finally, throughout the entire course of the project, the staff will conduct a literature search. The search will identify and evaluate various approaches to solar barriers and incentives developed by researchers in related disciplines, including architecture and urban design. It will also aid in sharpening the incentive programs in order to gear them pragmatically to the creation of demand for solar energy.

It is the aim of the study to make the materials which are developed immediately useful to decision makers. Therefore, in order to help assure reliability the project will disseminate tentative results and findings in non-technical language throughout the entire course of the project. As part of the reviewing and commenting process for this project, a Solar Land Use Incentives Review Board, including public and private leaders who possess expertise in relevant areas, will be asked to serve as commentators, originators of ideas, and as disseminators. In addition, the project's staff will keep the Western Governors' Regional Energy Policy Office informed of the study's results.

Political Scientist Richard Liroff, Attorney Alan Miller, and Managing Attorney Grant Thompson, from the Environmental Law Institute staff, will contribute to the Project. Ellen Kohler, an associate at the Denver law firm of Davis, Graham and Stubbs, will serve as a Colorado Consulting Attorney for the project. Suggestions of issues that need attention are welcome and may be addressed to the Principal Investigator or to Grant Thompson, Environmental Law Institute, 1346 Connecticut Avenue N.W., Suite 620, Washington, D.C. 20036.