The Trump administration approved a proposal Monday to construct and operate the largest solar power project in U.S. history, issuing a final permit for a massive facility just north of Las Vegas.
The $1 billion Gemini project would be the eighth-largest solar facility in the world, the Interior Department said, generating 690-megawatts of power, enough electricity for 260,000 homes in the Las Vegas area and potential markets in Southern California.
Nevada utility NV Energy, a subsidiary of billionaire Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, is providing financial backing to the project, which will be completed as early as 2022. It will generate more than $3 million annually in federal revenues, the Interior Department said.
The Trump administration cast the decision as representative of its “all of the above” approach to increasing U.S. energy production on public lands, which critics say has been mostly focused on fossil fuels.
President Trump has frequently criticized renewable power, questioning its reliability. The administration also touted the project as a job-creator for an area hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Interior Department said construction of the facility, spanning some 7,100 acres (11 square miles) of federal land, would create 500 to 700 temporary jobs, along with 1,100 support jobs during that time.
When the facility is built, it will support 19 permanent jobs, said Casey Hammond, principal deputy assistant secretary for Land and Minerals Management.
“Our economic resurgence will rely on getting America back to work, and this project delivers on that objective,” said Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.
The Solar Energy Industries Association, the main industry lobbying group, celebrated the decision.
The group’s endorsement is notable given it has had disagreements with other Trump administration policies, including its use of tariffs on imported solar panels.
“The solar industry is resilient and a project like this one will bring jobs and private investment to the state when we need it most,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president and CEO of the Solar Energy Industries Association. “We appreciate the work that the Trump Administration has done to make this historic project a reality.”
Read more at Washington Examiner
Someone should ask Trump to watch Michael Moore’s latest movie “Planet of the Humans” which shows what a scam the renewable energy business is.
Moore’s latest documentary details the futility of such a mass endeavor. The dose makes the poison. Solar on a community center, a home, a hardware store, on a hospital – all practical and minor in cost…this thing in Nevada – shear toxic
And unlike those other arrays of Solar Panels this one should be made safe for the Birds
Las Vegas needs air conditioning when the sun beats down the hardest. Solar makes some sense there. Up north, none at all. Our energy demand peaks in the winter, when the sun abandons us.
As long as this garbage doesn’t subsidized by the taxpayers and all materials made in the USA I don’t care.Warren Buffet can do whenever he wants with his money.
Often, renewable energy is subsidized by legislation. The result is that you are paying for it yourself. Ethanol in gasoline is an example. The weirdest one I’ve seen is private solar installations. The owners sell 100% of their electricity to the grid at an outrageous price, but their own electrical consumption is priced the same as their neighbors. In other words, they’re not selling surplus electricity. We’re forced to buy all of it and sell it back to them at one quarter the cost.
I’d like to qualify my earlier comment. I’m not against roof top solar as a supplemental energy source. What I am questioning is the use of resources and environmental impacts for this type of industrial scale application of solar.
I’d submit this is a good lesson in the intermittency, energy & power density of renewables if one chooses to look at basic energy imperatives. Although not stipulated, I have a hunch the 690 megawatt generation is rated capacity, NOT actual daily generation. So, you can (most likely) cut that number down to around 200-250 megawatts a day of actual generation, being generous. Regardless, you have an array covering 7,100 acres (11 square miles) to generate an amount of electricity that is PALTRY compared to the footprint of a combined cycle natural gas or (especially) a nuclear plant. MANY times more power generation per square foot with conventional generation, not to mention this solar farm will require (most likely) gas fired generation back-up for the 80% of the time it is not generating electricity. Rather than applauding this type of project, I’d submit that if you look at the efficiencies and environmental impacts associated with this type of project, it points to the fact that renewables just are NOT the answer in the long term U.S energy transition…