Wind farm eyed for Sandy Valley

Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001 | 11:27 a.m.

The firm that will build the state's first wind farm has its eye on a second site for the natural power source: in Sandy Valley, 50 miles southwest of Las Vegas.

M&N Wind Power is seeking up to 4,500 acres from the Bureau of Land Management for a wind farm in Sandy Valley that could provide 120 megawatts of electricity, enough to supply power for 120,000 people.

The group inked an agreement Wednesday to launch a three-phase project to build the state's first wind farm at the Nevada Test Site, capable of producing 300 megawatts of electricity. It would be the second-largest wind-generated power facility in the United States.

The main obstacle to the company's plans for Sandy Valley, home to about 3,000 people, may be water availability.

M&N isn't the only company interested in building power projects there, nor the only company seeking water rights.

Reliant Energy of Houston and Nevada Power Co. representatives said they are interested in revving up electrical generators to avoid facing a power crisis like the one in neighboring California.

Both proposals were examined by 40 residents at an informal meeting Wednesday night sponsored by the Bureau of Land Management. The residents biggest concern was the possible lack of water.

M&N spokesman Sebastian Nola said the wind farm's 150 wind generators atop 180-foot towers would need water only to mix concrete to build platforms for them.

Other proposals need ground water to operate.

Reliant's proposed 830-megawatt plants -- one for summer demand and the other for year-round generation -- will demand a total of 300 acre-feet of Sandy Valley's ground water, if it is available. Reliant has talked to Vidler Water Co., Nevada's largest landowner and a negotiator on water supplies in the Southwest, to secure ground water, representatives at the meeting said.

If Reliant builds natural-gas fired, air-cooled generators, it would supply electricity to private Primm developers or sell the power to Valley Electric, a cooperative serving southwestern Nevada and the Test Site, Michael Alvarado, project development manager for the company, said.

Electricity also could supply Nevada Power customers or meet out-of-state demands. There were few details from any of the companies about the size of their projects.

Sandy Valley residents have waged a grass-roots war to protect their water since learning ground-water requests by Vidler, Nevada Power and other companies.

None of the proposed projects are guaranteed, the BLM's Anna Wharton said.

The BLM will invite companies to compete for a right-of-way permit to build a wind farm project on Feb. 8, Wharton said, since M&N may not be the only company interested in competing for the site.

After that, the winning corporation will have to prove any project on Table Mountain's mesa will not harm the environment, including air, water, threatened or endangered species, she said.

Without water available, none of the projects could survive, company representatives said.