Federal officials plan to approve a massive solar farm with energy storage in the desert outside Las Vegas, paving the way for a $1-billion project that will provide electricity to Nevada residents served by billionaire Warren Buffetts NV Energy.
At 690 megawatts across 7,100 acres, the facility would generate more power than the largest solar farm currently operating in the United States, a 579-megawatt plant in Southern California. The energy storage component at least 380 megawatts of four-hour lithium-ion batteries, capable of storing solar power for use after dark would also be one of the largest facilities of its kind.
The so-called Gemini project will be on federal lands, and thus requires sign-off from the Interior Department. The departments Bureau of Land Management released a final environmental impact statement Monday, in which federal officials indicated they will approve the project after one last round of public comments, likely within 90 days.
President Donald Trump has rejected mainstream climate science, attempted to roll back dozens of regulations affecting the fossil fuel industry and routinely criticized renewable energy. In March he called solar power very, very expensive despite the fact that its now the cheapest electricity source across much of the United States, and in December he once again exaggerated the threat posed to bald eagles by wind turbines.
But Trumps appointees at the Interior Department have shepherded several large renewable energy projects across the finish line.
Gemini could be the third solar farm on public lands approved by federal officials since Trump took office, joining the 80-megawatt Sweetwater project in Wyoming and the 500-megawatt Palen project in Californias Riverside County.
The Bureau of Land Management published the final environmental analysis for another large Riverside County solar project, Desert Quartzite, in September, but has not yet issued an official record of decision.
The Gemini project would represent a significant increase in renewable energy capacity for Nevada and the West, Tim Smith, the bureaus district manager for southern Nevada, said in a recent news release, when the projects draft environmental analysis was released.
The BLM actively supports the Department of the Interiors America First Energy Plan, an all of the above strategy which supports energy development on public lands, Smith said.
The Trump administration has also issued several approvals for the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre wind project, which is being developed in Wyoming by Philip Anschutz, the billionaire owner of Staples Center and the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. If fully built out, it would be the largest wind farm in the country, with 1,000 turbines capable of producing 3,000 megawatts of power.
Falling prices and supportive state policies have continued to drive demand for renewable energy, even with the Trump administration taxing imported solar panels and more recently rejecting a proposed extension for clean energy tax credits.
The investment bank Lazard reported in November that onshore wind and solar power are two of the cheapest sources of new electricity generation in the United States, averaging $28 per megawatt-hour and $36 per megawatt-hour, respectively. Electricity from a new natural gas plant, by comparison, typically costs $44 to $68 per megawatt-hour, according to Lazard.
NV Energy will pay an average of $42.83 per megawatt-hour for the combined output of the solar panels and batteries at the Gemini project under a 25-year contract.
The addition of Gemini and two other solar-plus-storage projects allows us to extend the benefits of renewable energy to times when the sun is not shining, Doug Cannon, NV Energys president and chief executive, said last month.
Todays decision brings the environmental and price benefits of low-cost solar energy to our customers, Cannon said in a news release, after the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada approved power purchase contracts for Gemini and the other projects. We are proud to be delivering a renewable energy vision to our customers that also supports Nevadas economic and sustainability goals.
