"Permitting. “Permitting is definitely on the agenda.” Secretary Granholm called for a whole-of-government approach to reducing permitting times and eliminating unnecessary obstacles to permitting for renewable energy projects, extraction of source materials for batteries, and similar ventures."
"NREL has defined the seven core subject areas of renewable projects to be: Site, Resource, Offtake, Permits, Technology, Team, and Capital—and describe each in more depth in the sections that follow. These core areas form the informational framework, and are the source of the acronym "SROPTTC," which has come to represent collectively all of the environment, framework, processes, and tools of project development. "
In simple terms, the five essential areas for strong project motivation listed below have been referred to using the acronym BEPTC, building off of the titles of Baseline, Economics, Policy, Technology, and Consensus.
Source: A Framework for Project Development in the Renewable Energy Sector, NREL, Robert Springer
Figure 1. Iterations of SROPTTC framework in the development stage
Source: A Framework for Project Development in the Renewable Energy Sector, NREL, Robert Springer
"Permits. This encompasses all permits necessary for project construction and operation, including all federal requirements related to environmental regulations in the National Environmental Policy Act’s (NEPA) Environmental Assessment or Environmental Impact Study requirements; and state and local jurisdictional permits, including local entitlements, electrical contracting permits, and building permits. Generally, without strong development of the Site, Resource, and Off-take elements, significant investment is not made in permits. That said, it is an important element to understand from both a feasibility and risk standpoint—if a project has a high hurdle for permitting, and therefore includes significant permit or policy risks, it needs to be understood and executed with that knowledge in mind. NEPA risk, in the case of a federal project in particular, is generally unacceptable for renewable energy developers who may turn instead to the nonfederal market opportunities. A strategy to mitigate NEPA risk for the development community may therefore be essential for renewable energy project successes in the federal sector."
Source: A Framework for Project Development in the Renewable Energy Sector, NREL, Robert Springer
Figure 2. BEPTC and SROPPTC process diagram with 10 steps
Source: A Framework for Project Development in the Renewable Energy Sector, NREL, Robert Springer