PG&E, FPL, Chevron, Goldman Sachs, Silicon Valley startups, Israeli and German solar firms and speculators are among those taking part in a land rush for solar power sites in the deserts of the southwestern U.S. BrightSource Energy, a startup backed by Morgan Stanley and Google, is so anxious to stake its claim with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) that it applied for a lease to land it had not yet surveyed. Application fees alone run in the six figures, but stiff competition is pushing interested parties to act quickly, though it will take years to complete the plants. In Californias Mojave Desert, just five applications for solar sites had been filed less then two years ago, but today, BLM has received a total of 104 claims for almost one million acres of land, which represents about 60 gigawatts of electric-generating potential. The agency has temporarily stopped accepting new land claims while it develops a desert-wide solar policy. Environmentalists are seeking to protect the land where the desert tortoise and other animals make their home, which will cause problems for energy speculators. Some environmentalists are torn between supporting the drive for renewable energy development and protecting the land for wildlife. Surrounding states are calling for big increases in renewable energy within the next few years, thus some Emerging Energy Research analysts predict the solar market will reach $45 billion by 2020.