Thousands of acres of public lands blocked from mining for potential solar site

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced last week it will withhold more than 20,000 acres of public land near Yuma, Ariz., from minerals mining, and instead, reserve the area to study its potential as a solar energy site. Without the increased production of minerals—the very resources used to build solar panels—the BLM could be hindering these and other advanced energy technologies from coming to market. In fact, it takes more than 15 different minerals to build one solar panel, according to the Mineral Information Institute. In restricting areas from minerals mining, the BLM is, in effect, debilitating the foundation for advanced technologies—including solar power and alternative energy.

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