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New Energy for America
The U.S. Department of the Interior is creating a new energy frontier for America by harnessing the renewable-energy potential of America’s public lands. Onshore we are developing renewable-energy projects involving solar, wind, geothermal, biomass and bioenergy, and hydropower. We are also planning new transmission corridors to move this clean power to areas of high demand. Offshore, we are exploring the use of offshore-wind energy, ocean-wave energy and ocean-current energy.
Solar Energy
 Within the Southwest, Interior’s Bureau of Land Management manages 30 million acres of public lands with solar potential. Interior has proposed studying areas within this region for fast-track development of large-scale energy projects that could produce up to 100,000 megawatts of electricity or enough to power up 29 million homes.
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Wind Energy
BLM manages 20.6 million acres of public lands with wind potential. The renewable-energy offices that Interior is establishing will help BLM speed up its review of applications for wind projects on public lands. BLM’s Lands and Realty Management program currently has authorized 192 rights-of-way for the use of public lands for wind-energy-production sites. Of these, 25 authorizations have a total installed capacity of 327 megawatts
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Geothermal Energy
BLM has the delegated authority for leasing 249 million acres of public lands (including more than 100 million acres of National Forest lands) with geothermal potential. It presently manages 530 geothermal leases; 58 are in producing status, generating about 1,275 MW of installed geothermal energy on public lands. This amounts to about 50 percent of U.S. geothermal-energy capacity.
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Biomass and Bioenergy
BLM manages approximately 69 million acres of forests and woodlands. About 16 million acres need restoration. BLM is increasing the use of small-diameter material from forestry, fuels and rangeland treatments. It expects demand for biomass to increase as bioenergy facilities come online to produce heat, fuel or electricity.
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Energy-Transmission Corridors
Interior, in coordination with other federal and state agencies, is identifying locations for the energy-transmission corridors our nation needs to deliver renewable-energy resources to major population centers. Energy-transmission corridors will help meet increasing energy demands while mitigating potential harmful effects to the environment.
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Hydropower
 Hydropower is our nation’s primary source of renewable energy and costs less to generate than other electricity sources. Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation is the second largest producer of hydroelectric power in the United States. Its eight power plants have an installed capacity of more than 14 million kilowatts. They annually generate more than 44 billion KW hours of hydroelectric energy — enough to meet the annual needs of 9 million people.
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Offshore-Wind Energy
 Interior’s Minerals Management Service manages the Outer Continental Shelf, 1.7 billion acres of federal-offshore lands with enormous wind-energy potential. The National Renewable Energy Lab has identified more than 1,000 gigawatts of wind potential off the Atlantic Coast, and more than 900 GW, off the Pacific Coast. To guide renewable-energy development on the OCS, MMS grants leases and easements in an orderly, safe, and environmentally responsible way.
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Ocean-Wave Energy
Ocean Wave energy also is a potentially significant OCS renewable-energy resource, but wave energy is in the developmental stage. Wave-power devices extract energy directly from the surface motion of ocean waves. Development of this technology will most likely focus on areas along the Pacific Northwest or off the coast of Hawaii.
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Ocean-Current Energy
Ocean currents represent a potentially significant source of energy. While still at the early stage of development, the technology to extract energy from ocean currents uses submerged water turbines similar to wind turbines. Some of the ocean cur¬rents on the Outer Continental Shelf are the Gulf Stream, Florida Straits Current, and California Current.
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