Archaeology and the Green Power Initiative: Reconciling Large Renewable Energy Development Projects and the Protection of Cultural Resources

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The development of utility scale renewable energy projects is a necessity to curtail our environmental footprint. The utilization of solar and wind power sources to provide stable, affordable, and ethically sound alternatives to the resource extraction-based energy production practices of yesterday is quickly sweeping the American landscape. However, with these developments, large undeveloped areas in rural settings are subject to substantial soil impacts, as well as viewshed impacts, and characteristic change of the landscape. The approach by many state historic preservation offices has been similar in some respects, but not standardized to include an accepted set of best practices. To better evaluate cultural resources caught in the wake of energy development for each development type, the discussion of current approaches should be undertaken. This study evaluates direct and indirect impacts of both solar and wind facilities in mountainous terrain and explores a set of best practices to evaluate those impacts to provide developers with the best possible data to avoid impacts to cultural resources.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 25095