Scramble is on for alternative energy around West

Want some solar energy with your geothermal?

In Utah, state officials are fielding various combinations of energy proposals, a list that includes solar and geothermal installations and an energy storage project that would turn salt caverns into a kind of giant battery. The caverns would hold compressed air when they're not storing natural gas.

Together, the 15 projects in the works, planned or being talked up amount to "a land rush of alternate energy" projects, said John Andrews, the No. 2 official at Utah's trust-lands administration, which manages about 5,500 square miles of land left over from a federal grant at statehood.

It's a land rush across much of the West, which offers an abundance of wide-open public lands, steaming geothermal resources, blazing sunshine and unconstrained wind corridors.

Scores of projects — some speculative, others well-funded and a few quirky — have surfaced with energy companies eager to take advantage of loan guarantees and tax breaks being promoted by President Barack Obama:

In Nevada, the National Guard is planning to install solar-power panels that would serve double duty as carports at its installations, shading vehicles from the sun. This concept is called "solar parking." In addition, Nevada is looking at powering state prisons with their own solar installations.

With both projects, "we're just trying to get something on the ground quickly," Robert Nellis, supervisory land agent for the Nevada Division of State Lands. "This is low-hanging fruit. It seems like a no-brainer."

In Arizona, the Phoenix-area utility Salt River Project will dedicate the state's first wind farm Oct. 12 near Snowflake, a project developed by the Scottish company Iberdrola Renewables Inc. Fully developed, the Dry Lake Wind Project will sprawl across state, federal and private lands.

"We have 16 more projects in the queue, mostly solar-based with a wide variety of technology," said Jamie Hogue, Arizona's deputy land commissioner, who is making plans for a series of auctions next year for lease of some of the state's 14,500 square miles of trust lands. "There's a lot of speculation going on, as well as companies that are really interested."

Geothermal — a time-honored source of continuous power — is ramping up in California and Nevada, already the country's leading producers of steam-powered electricity.