LAS VEGAS –– An upcoming conference aims to address several major hurdles facing the solar industry today: lack of long-term uninterrupted government support, lack of government and private investment capital and difficulty with project permitting. The Solar Power Generation USA conference will take place in Las Vegas Wednesday and Thursday.

“The solar industry in the United States has faced numerous tectonic shifts in support of solar energy,” said Sarah Ellis, managing director of Green Power Conferences. “Today, the shift is in favor of the solar industry moved by the need for the country to find ways to reduce its dependence on fossil fuel based energy sources. With this new fast-paced movement, companies must learn how to capitalize on the opportunities in front of them and they will learn just that at the Solar Power Generation USA conference.”

The goal of the conference, according to organizers, is to help companies develop successful utility scale solar projects. One area that companies struggle with is understanding the key environmental, land use and permitting issues.

With the recent influx of funds, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has received a large number of proposed applications for renewable energy projects.

“Although BLM began to plan for solar energy development in 2004, recent state and federal initiatives and incentives have created a much larger-than-anticipated demand for solar energy development sites on BLM lands,” said Mike Nedd, assistant director of minerals and realty management with the BLM.

Nedd is also a featured speaker during the Solar Power Generation USA conference.

“We have responded by partnering with the Department of Energy on the Solar PEIS by working through the federal budget cycle to fund Renewable Energy Coordination Offices and renewable energy related positions and by developing a coordinated, focused effort to move projects through the environmental review and permitting process more quickly but without taking shortcuts,” Nedd said.