Editorial: It could be a new day

Sunday, March 25, 2007 | 7:17 a.m.

State Sen. Randolph Townsend, R-Reno, was talking our language Thursday when he said, "If we can't turn Southern Nevada into the world leader on solar energy, shame on us."

Townsend heads the Commerce and Labor Committee, and his comment was made after the panel had heard testimony from several renewable energy experts who are working on projects in Nevada.

One of the experts was Gary Wayne, vice president of PowerLight, a solar company based in Berkeley, Calif. Pointing to a graph on the costs of solar power, Wayne said the time for developing this energy source is now.

In 20 years, from 1980 to 2000, the cost of solar power dropped more than 80 percent, he said. He predicted that, with continued advances in technology, solar power will be cheaper than conventional power within five years.

One of the benefits of Nevada becoming known as a state friendly toward renewable energy is that companies like PowerLight are attracted to investment opportunities here. PowerLight has been granted approval by the Nevada Public Utilities Commission to build a solar project on 140 acres at Nellis Air Force Base.

The project will not only supply power to the base . It also will sell it to Nevada Power Co., increasing the utility's ability to comply with a state law requiring utilities to produce 20 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2015.

At the committee hearing, Wayne also described a plan to bring his company into a partnership with Nevada Power, UNLV, the Department of Defense and Tesla Motors, a California-based electric car company. Wayne said the hope is to develop a facility at Nellis that would bring forth a vehicle that could get 100 miles per gallon, using conventional and solar electricity as power sources in addition to gasoline.

Such innovative thinking is good for the state, as has been shown by Solargenix Energy of North Carolina. A representative of the company told the committee that its Nevada Solar One plant, for years in the planning and development stages, will begin operation outside of Boulder City at the end of next month. Built to produce 64 megawatts of power, it will be the third-largest solar plant in the world.

Newly elected Gov. Jim Gibbons has long been absent on the renewable energy front, but we hope the Legislature and economic development groups fill the void. The potential for attracting such industries here has barely been tapped. We believe it truly will be shameful if Nevada misses its opportunity to become a world leader in renewable energy.