There are hundreds of thousands of acres of state trust land prime for wind and solar projects. Commissioner Garcia Richard has created the first ever Office of Renewable Energy at the State Land Office with a mission to triple the amount of wind and solar energy generated on state trust land to diversify funds raised for beneficiaries.

The Office of Renewable Energy is committed to:

• Stimulating interest in solar and wind energy projects on state trust lands by conducting a comprehensive inventory of which parcels are most suitable for such projects.
• Incentivizing further solar and wind energy investigation of state trust lands by issuing special use permits in advance of a structured auction of those lands.
• Expediting the lease of identified sites.
• Issuing commercial leases of 10 to 99 years for identified sites
• Developing a participation mechanism, which would auction land at lower prices, but allow the state to receive a share of revenues from the completed project.