A view of solar panels at the Enbridge Silver State North Solar Project in Primm on Monday, May 7, 2012. Silver State North, owned by Canada-based Enbridge Inc., sells power to NV Energy for use in the Las Vegas area.
Tuesday, April 11, 2017 | 2:49 p.m.
NV Energy has reached its mandated renewable energy goals for the seventh straight year.
In a filing with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada, NV Energy reported it achieved a 22.2 percent renewable credit level last year in Southern Nevada and a 26.6 level in Northern Nevada.
The legislated requirement for 2016 was 20 percent, based on total retail energy sales. The requirement rises to 25 percent in 2025.
NV Energy said there are 43 renewable energy projects in Nevada from which its customers benefit. That number will grow, with four more universal solar projects in the development or construction phases.
The majority of NV Energy’s renewable energy portfolio credits come from geothermal resources, but solar resources are on the rise, representing almost 33 percent of total renewable energy resources.
Together, those projects represent more than 1,460 megawatts of nameplate renewable energy capacity.
If all were operating at the same time, they would generate enough energy to serve more than 875,000 typical homes in Nevada, according to NV Energy.
Further cementing the push toward utilizing cleaner energy, coal dropped to 6 percent of NV Energy’s power generation after the recent closing of the coal-fueled Reid Gardner Generating Station. The majority of energy comes from Nevada-based natural gas power plants.
The company has slashed its coal-fueled generation and increased its renewable energy portfolio without raising rates. Customer rates today are at levels near rates in 2007.
Nevada’s average retail power price for customers was 18 percent less than the average in the U.S., according to a 2016 report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The average price was 45 percent lower than in California.
NV Energy customers are served by 19 geothermal energy plants, 14 universal-scale solar fields, six hydro projects, five biomass or methane projects and a wind farm.
Nevada introduced its renewable energy mandate in 1997, the second state to do so. Twenty-nine states, Washington, D.C., and three territories have adopted renewable energy mandates, with eight states and one territory setting renewable energy goals.
