Renewable Energy in the Desert

CBI provides scientific support to agencies involved with the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP)

The Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan (DRECP), a major component of California’s renewable energy planning efforts, is designed to provide effective protection and conservation of desert ecosystems while allowing for the appropriate development of renewable energy projects.  Approximately 22.5 million acres of federal and non-federal California desert land are in the DRECP Plan Area.  The federal portion of plan area was released by the Bureau of Land Management as a Land Use Plan Amendment (LUPA).  The project is now transitioning into Phase II, which focuses on county-level planning designed to work in conjunction with the LUPA.

During Phase I of the project, CBI provided science support for this ambitious planning process including a wide range of spatial models and assessments (e.g., species distribution, intactness, conservation value, and climate change).  CBI also developed and continues to maintain the DRECP Gateway (launched on September 26, 2014) and various interpretation applications to support the determination of the Final Plan and its implementation.  One example of an interpretation application is the DRECP Climate Console, which was designed to allow users to explore climate projections to better understand how climate change could alter ecosystems in the California desert.  It provides science-based and actionable climate data to encourage smarter, more comprehensive landscape-level conservation planning efforts and decisions.

During Phase II of the project, CBI is customizing the Gateway to support the adaptive management aspects of the LUPA and to support the county-level planning processes.

To access the gateway, please visit http://drecp.databasin.org/

To access the Climate Console, please visit http://drecp.consbio.webfactional.com/climate

To learn more about the DRECP, please visit www.drecp.org or visit the Data Basin Guide and Case Study about DRECP at http://databasin.org/articles/1408e0eed6754d68a06047aaa0e64c2b