Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

Solar power, VIP guest are stars atop Mandalay Bay

Ernest Moniz

Kyle Roerink

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz

It wasn’t the average Las Vegas rooftop party.

Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz was the special guest at a rooftop event to unveil Mandalay Bay's new, first-of-its kind solar installation on the Strip.

The solar array, built by NRG Energy, has 21,324 panels and will supply electricity to 20 percent of the resort’s operations. Construction started on the solar array in August and finished two weeks ago. It will go online in late November.

That’s enough electricity to power around 1,000 homes and will result in a carbon reduction equivalent to removing 6,300 cars off the road, said Randall Hickok, an NRG Energy vice president.

Twenty percent of the solar panels were funded with taxpayer dollars through a Department of Energy grant from the 2009 stimulus program, Hickok said.

Skepticism has shrouded government funded solar programs since the energy department started investing in them. But Moniz signaled that the private sector is now taking notice and the industry is turning a corner.

Some in the solar industry are calling 2014, the year of solar. The government has funded five large-scale solar projects this year. That promise of investment has spurred 17 private sector solar projects, Moniz said. He said companies like NRG Energy, which owns solar arrays and works out agreements with private companies, helps to drive costs down.

When asked if there is a stigma attached with solar, Moniz was quick to resound.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “… I think solar is in a really good place.”

After years of avoiding solar projects because of cost concerns, the Mandalay Bay project “made sense for shareholders,” said Cindy Ortega, MGM Resorts chief sustainability officer.

MGM Resorts, which owns Mandalay Bay, is considering installing solar arrays at other Strip locations, she said.

The Mandalay Bay project, which covers more than 20 acres of the resort’s convention center rooftop space, is one of the largest in the world, Hickok said.

“It is the flagship for commercial, industrial,” he said.

Hickok’s company has 142 other installations.

“This one dwarfs all of those,” he said.

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