Barron’s reported January 4 that NV Energy, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, will be behind a project to build the largest solar power plant in the U.S.
The Berkshire subsidiary will be using the electricity generated by the Gemini solar project, a 690-megawatt solar-energy plant to be built on federal land in Nevada. The current record for a solar plant is 579 megawatts.
On Monday, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released an environmental-impact statement about the project, indicating that it would approve the project after a 90-day period for public comment, as first reported by the Los Angeles Times. While the Trump administration hasn’t been friendly to solar power, opposing a plan last year to extend tax incentives, a federal official praised the Berkshire project as being part of an “America First Energy Plan,” echoing nationalist rhetoric the president has used to describe other parts of his agenda.
The Gemini project, which will generate power for NV Energy companies but will be developed by third parties, will be 25 miles from Las Vegas. That project and two others will produce 1.19 gigawatts of new power for NV, comparable to the electricity required to power 230,000 homes. The projects also come with 590 megawatts of battery-storage capacity.
The Gemini project will cost $38.44 per megawatt hour under a 25-year contract, the L.A. Times reported, while Lazard has calculated that the average national cost of a new natural-gas plant ranges from $44 to $68.
The BLM, under former President Obama, had previously rejected the project under an agreement with conservation groups that protected sensitive desert land from wind and solar development. The Trump administration indicated it would scrap that agreement in February 2018.
Greenwire reported January 2 that, in addition to several high-profile fossil fuel and mining projects, according to a BLM state-by-state priority project list obtained by E&E News, the Trump administration is also preparing to approve several other large-scale renewable energy projects on federal lands in addition to NV Energy:
• The Crimson Solar Project in California, which would have 350 MW of generation capacity.
• The Haiwee Geothermal Leasing Area, which would offer more than 21,000 acres in California for utility-scale geothermal power development.
• The 42-turbine Walker Ridge Wind Energy Project in Northern California.
• The 250 MW Yellow Pine Solar Project in Nevada.
• The 100 MW Borderlands Wind Project in New Mexico.
The list of renewable energy projects set for approval, though unusual, does not point to a sudden change of heart in the Trump administration's views of renewable energy, said Scott Sklar, Director of the George Washington University Solar Institute in Washington. Rather, Sklar suggested the administration doesn't have any choice but to make at least some effort to advance renewable energy projects, especially solar, now that "the industry is starting to get up to scale."
Original stories at www.barrons.com and www.eenews.net.
https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061975241