I am having trouble believing the news about clean energy in Las Vegas. We had been slowly making our way towards a cleaner tomorrow but sadly two recent government decisions has had everyone bothered about what's next for the future of energy.
The Esmeralda 7 Solar Project, a proposal to develop seven solar farms in the desert north of town was canceled. The Bureau of Land Management finished its environmental review and labeled the plan as canceled. The massive project, which is capable of powering all of Southern Nevada, is in perpetual limbo with not much hope of a restart deadline.
The developers may opt to offer smaller arrays, but they will have to go back to step one of the permitting process. If you're familiar with it, that process takes years. Some of the analysts expect the delay will kill the project for sure. NextEra Energy said that it will press on but if we're being real, nobody knows whether the company will succeed.
A request by NV Energy, the state's largest utility, was rejected by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. NV Energy requested putting on the chopping block dozens of stalled retired clean energy projects as Congress goes on to cut vital tax credits. The commission's denial in a way leaves those projects on life support, they take up space in the queue that new wind and solar farms require. The slowdown also postpones NV Energy's Greenlink power transmission line which is a project to funnel more power into Las Vegas.
The consequence of this move by the government is just one giant solar farm on life support and a key transmission upgrade becoming a disappointment. For each step the state takes toward clean energy, it is set back by another regulation. Nobody knows what this will do to electric rates in the future or grid stability but one thing we can be certain of is that the hopes for Nevada's renewable aspirations are now definitely lower.
