Energy firms eye Nevada ‘green’ power

By Timothy Pratt

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 11:01 a.m.

A bill that has passed the Legislature and is awaiting Gov. Kenny Guinn's signature has energy companies from Florida to California considering investments in Nevada that could total $500 million to $3 billion over the next decade.

Senate Bill 372, also known as the Renewable Energy Portfolio Requirement, would require utilities to buy an increasing amount of energy from so-called "green" sources, such as wind, solar, geothermal -- or underground heat and biomass -- burning organic matter, such as wood.

The goal is to supply 15 percent of Nevada's electricity through renewables by 2013. Currently, 17 states have similar energy portfolios, ranging from Maine, which supplies 30 percent of its energy from these sources, to Texas -- 3 percent. With this law, Nevada would be second in the nation in the percentage of renewable energy supplied.

These sources are termed renewable because they don't run out, unlike gas or coal. They're also called "green" because most don't produce emissions, which pollute the air.

"Five hundred million is about what the New York-New York hotel-casino cost to build," Keith Schwer, director of UNLV's Center for Business and Economic Research, said. "This would be a significant economic boost for the state.'

"Plus, it would be new money coming into the area, from outside the state, without driving other companies out of business," he said.

"Nevada has always had huge renewable energy potential," George Douglas of the National Renewable Energy Lab in Colorado said.

Economic conditions have not allowed this potential to be exploited, however.

"Renewables have never been developed due to a lack of market. With this law in place, the market is created and we can get financing to build," Scott Craigie, who represents Stirling Energy of Arizona, said.

Craigie's company is poised to build solar plants with mirrors that focus sunlight onto furnaces that create steam to power turbines, which are connected to generators.

"These mirrors are the size of a car hood and need to be manufactured in large quantities to be cost-effective," he said.

Stirling hopes to build plants that could generate up to 100 megawatts, or enough energy to power 100,000 homes in the cooler months. The investment required would range from $250 million to $500 million, depending on how long construction takes, he said.

Gary Bailey is the West Coast representative for Duke Solar, a company formed from a joint venture with North Carolina's Duke Power. "We're anxiously awaiting the outcome of this," he said.

Duke has a solar thermal system that Bailey compares to the 354-megawatt plant built in the Mojave Desert in California in the 1980s. It uses a trough to heat a kind of oil that can withstand temperatures up to 1,000 degrees. The heated oil also drives a turbine.

Bailey says his company could initially supply 50 megawatts, but he sees the potential for supplying from 200 to 500 megawatts. He projects an initial investment of $200 million.

"We should have seen the need for renewable energy in Nevada years ago," he said. "They have no fluctuating costs tied to oil prices and mitigate emissions."

"Now people need to see that these sources work and aren't some radical alternative," he said.

Steve Munson has devoted five years to acquiring property in northern Nevada for developing geothermal energy, or underground heat -- a total of 44,000 acres. He is the president of Vulcan Power in Bend, Ore.

"Without market share, utilities have signed no long-term contracts with independent providers like us for a decade," Munson said.

"So we have the properties, but we haven't been able to develop on them."

Munson said the Bureau of Land Management is currently reviewing applications for geothermal development on its land. If the bill is not signed by Guinn, he said, the energy would be sold to other states, such as California.

"We've been receiving applications for geothermal development every week, with more than 118,000 acres total at this point," Steve Wells of the Nevada office of the Bureau of Land Management said.

Daniel Schochet, vice president of Ormat Nevada, has observed geothermal energy's development in the state since its beginning, having built Nevada's first geothermal plant in 1984.

Schochet said geothermal energy could be developed at a wholesale price of 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour, which would allow utilities to sell it at a price comparable to gas and coal, now sold to consumers at 8 to 10 cents per kilowatt-hour.