Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Energy column:

Solar firm sees bright future here

Coyote Springs

Richard Brian

Coyote Springs is a planned city in Lincoln and Clark counties near the junction of U.S. Highway 93 and State Highway 168, about 50 miles north of Las Vegas.

Emerging solar thermal developer BrightSource Energy is launching its first Nevada solar thermal project, about 40 miles north of Las Vegas on the Coyote Springs development.

The Oakland, Calif.-based solar company announced its plans for a solar thermal project that could produce as much as 600 megawatts of electricity on 6 square miles (3,840 acres) of privately owned land.

The exact size of the solar thermal plant will be determined later, once BrightSource has finished evaluating the transmission and output capacity of the site.

BrightSource’s solar thermal system uses a relatively new solar thermal technology that uses heliostats (thousands of relatively small, flat mirrors) organized in clusters that reflect the sun’s rays onto a tower filled with a water or saline solution that is heated until it becomes steam, which then turns a turbine and generates electricity.

Each heliostat is individually installed and controlled to follow the sun’s rays to more efficiently heat the liquid. Five heliostats can produce up to 100 megawatts of power.

The only water the arrays would use would be in the closed-loop steam-generation system and for occasional cleaning of the heliostats. The company uses a dry-cooling technology that cools the tower without using more water, reducing the plant’s water needs by about 90 percent.

The project would likely be finished in a shorter period of time than comparable projects because it sits on already developed, privately owned land, and much of the permitting has been completed.

The company has not yet signed a power purchase agreement with any utilities but is expecting interest from both California and Nevada utility companies as well as Coyote Springs developers Pardee Homes and Harvey Whittemore.

“We’re still trying to determine who’s getting the power,” BrightSource spokesman Keely Wachs said. “It’s ideally located to provide energy to California and Nevada offtakers. We think it’s likely to be a mix of offtakers — it could be consumed by the housing community or the Nevada utility or it could help us meet demand in California.”

The company that buys the electricity will get the corresponding Renewable Energy Credits, meaning if the Coyote Springs development does not buy any of the energy, it cannot legally market itself as a solar-powered community.

Coyote Springs is a planned city in Lincoln and Clark counties near the junction of U.S. Highway 93 and State Highway 168. The development is expected to have about 50,000 homes, six golf courses and 1,200 acres of retail and commercial space in Clark County and another 29,800 homes in Lincoln County.

It is also supposed to include schools, security, emergency services and health care facilities.

The first golf course has already been built and is open. Construction of other parts of the project is scheduled to begin in late 2009 or early 2010.

The Coyote Springs solar project is the second BrightSource has planned near Las Vegas. BrightSource is also developing the Ivanpah Solar Field, a 400-megawatt solar thermal plant planned for land next to the Primm Golf Course on the California side of the border.

The plant is expected to be the company’s first American solar thermal installation.

Permitting on that plant is going forward smoothly, and construction is expected to start later this year, Wachs said.

Phase one, which includes two 100-megawatt solar power units, should be completed by 2011. A 200-megawatt unit should come online by early 2013.

Power from those arrays will be sold to California utilities Pacific Gas and Electric and Southern California Edison as part of larger power purchase agreements. BrightSource is on contract to provide SoCal Edison with 1,300 megawatts of solar power and PG&E with 900 megawatts.

To meet those goals, BrightSource is looking for solar thermal plant sites across the southwest, including Southern Nevada.

“We’re still considering Nevada for new development,” Wachs said. “It’s a very important market for us and it has great policy leadership here that recognizes the importance of solar to the economy. We think Nevada is going to be an important part of the solar world.”

Stephanie Tavares covers utilities and law for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached at 259-4059 or at [email protected].

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