Draft Base Exclusions (Solar) for 2026-2027 IRP

This version of the base exclusions incorporates the latest draft version of the Protected Area Layer (Solar) and the techno-economic exclusion layer. The base exclusions form the fundamental exclusion set that the additional planning priorities of the Core Land Use Screen is added to. The merged footprints of these primary two layers are modified by the Greater Sage-Grouse Habitat Management Areas, the Bureau of Land Management Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP) Land Use Plan Amendment (LUPA) Development Focus Areas (DFAs), Variance Process Lands (VPL), and the General Public Lands (GPL), as well as the 2024 BLM Western Solar Plan. These areas allow for renewable energy applications and are therefore exempt (erased) from the base exclusions layer, even if the protected area layer or techno-economic exclusion layer identified the area as an exclusion. The DFAs are partitioned by technology type so that only the DFAs that allow solar energy are applied in this modification.   The area of California remaining after removing the base exclusions is called the resource potential basemap. It forms the starting point (or base) used in renewable resource estimation and defines where environmental and land-use datasets can be applied in exploring implications of renewable resource development. Note: Existing project footprints are also included as part of the base exclusions.   More information is found in the CEC presentation from the August 19 webinar, as well as the 2023 Land Use Screens Staff Report in the CEC Energy Planning Library.