More juice: Boulder City solar project to quintuple in size
Boulder City will soon house North America's largest sun-powered energy plant.
And though local utility executives praised the power station as an indicator of Southern Nevada's potential for renewable energy, they said they hoped the project would generate more jobs and more juice for locals than its predecessor created.
San Diego-based Sempra Generation, a subsidiary of Sempra Energy in New York, said Wednesday it would more than quintuple the size of its El Dorado Energy solar plant, from 10 megawatts to 58 megawatts. The company will rename the expanded project Copper Mountain Solar.
"The desire to build renewable resources for generating electricity has never been greater," said Mike Allman, president and chief executive officer of Sempra Generation. "Fears of climate change, carbon-emissions issues and trying to wean our country off of burning fossil fuels all have led toward a desire for renewable resources."
Allman wouldn't disclose the cost of building the addition or the price Sempra will charge for the energy Copper Mountain Solar generates. But he said the plant will yield the lowest-priced solar power in the world thanks to several factors.
First, it's part of an existing Sempra power complex, so infrastructure for distributing the energy already exists. That means there will be no substantial cost to connect the center to the power grid. What's more, the addition's land was already zoned for power-plant use, which made for a quick permitting process. And the company will build the plant with cash so it won't incur financing costs.
Construction should begin when Sempra completes contracts to sell the plant's output. The generating station could come online by late 2010.
Roberto Denis, senior vice president of energy supply for local electric utility NV Energy, said the expansion "points out the attractiveness of Southern Nevada for solar development."
The expansion will allow Sempra to serve more than 30,000 homes.
But those homes might not be in the Las Vegas Valley.
Power from the 10-megawatt El Dorado plant went to households in San Francisco after Pacific Gas and Electric bought the juice. Allman said PG&E showed the most interest, while NV Energy showed "mild but not substantial interest" in electricity from El Dorado.
Denis said Allman's account was "outright incorrect."
NV Energy had engaged in "extensive negotiations" with Sempra for power from El Dorado, even working out a price for the energy. But Sempra pulled the deal at the last minute when PG&E offered a higher price for the power. Denis said NV Energy has no plans as of now to purchase power from Copper Mountain Solar, either.
The utility sends out requests for proposals each year for suppliers interested in competing to sell the company the renewable energy it needs to meet state requirements mandating the use of renewable-energy sources. That process hasn't yet resulted in NV Energy's buying power from Sempra's Boulder City solar plant.
"Hopefully, this expansion will result in more benefits to the city than the first phase did," Denis said.
The combined plant is expected to employ three people upon completion.
Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512.
NV Energy Wednesday said it met state renewable-energy use mandates in 2008, the first time it has done so since the requirements went into effect in 1997.
The utility announced meeting the mandated levels on the same day company officials dedicated two new geothermal power plants that will provide power in Northern Nevada to the electric utility.
The Nevada Legislature wants 20 percent of the Silver State’s power to come from renewable sources by 2015.
NV Energy was supposed to obtain 9 percent of its power from renewable resources in 2008. The utility told the Nevada Public Utilities Commission Wednesday that it met that threshold, though the commission must investigate and verify the claim, said agency spokesman Sean Sever.
The Salt Wells & Stillwater Geothermal complex in Fallon offers generation capacity of 65 megawatts, or more than 400 million kilowatt hours of electricity annually. That’s enough to power 40,000 homes, and it should curb the emission of more than 300,000 tons of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas some scientists say causes global warming.
Enel Green Power, a subsidiary of Enel Group in Italy, owns and operates the plants, which created 25 jobs. More than 300 workers were employed to build the plants.
Geothermal plants use hot water from below ground to provide electricity, while conventional power plants use fossil fuels such as coal and natural gas.
