Conservationists have long advocated solar power as a major tool to help combat climate change.
But large solar facilities take up space, and one federal land agency is playing a big role in the push for clean energy.
The Bureau of Land Management recently announced a new solar project near Blythe, California, that will power around 120,000 homes.
The agency looks after 245 million acres, most of them in Western states, where it has been active in recent expansion of the solar grid.
That includes a number of projects west of Phoenix. The BLM also played a major role in developing new transmission lines for renewable energy — one from New Mexico to central Arizona, another from Tonopah to southern California.
