Nellis AFB goes Solar ...
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Officials on Monday marked the start of construction on a solar power generation station designed to provide about a quarter of the electricity needed by Nellis Air Force Base.
The project, called Solar Star, was being promoted as the country's largest photo voltaic solar project.
San Francisco-based MMA Renewable Ventures is leasing 140 acres on the western edge of the base north of Las Vegas, where the $100 million-plus project will be built by San Jose, Calif.-based SunPower Corp.
Plans call for installing some 70,000 solar panels by next year, generating more than 25 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year, or about enough to supply about 11,000 Las Vegas-area homes.
Nellis plans to buy power from the project at an estimated savings of $1 million a year, compared with buying electricity from the main local electric utility, Nevada Power Co.
MMA and its partners plan to sell renewable energy credits to Nevada Power and its parent, Reno-based Sierra Pacific Power, for 20 years to help the utilities meet their renewable energy requirements. The company will receive a 30 percent federal tax credit on the project.
"The fact that the military is taking a big leap into the renewables arena is significant," said Don Soderberg, chairman of the Nevada Public Utilities Commission. "I've always looked at solar as an investment in our future."
Thomas Fair, Nevada Power's renewable energy executive, said once the Nellis project and a 64-megawatt solar thermal power plant in Boulder City are completed, Nevada should have the highest per capita solar energy production in the country.
Taxpayer money so I guess .... who cares, but .....
Invest $100 million to save $1 million ???
Only in the USA <g>
25 million kwh @ 0.14 = $3,500,000 value of the
electricity gives a 28 year payback at current
electric costs .. and this assumes that the Air Force
owns the facility; which apparently it doesn't because
you've got MMA Renewables in the deal ..
Triff ..
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