Editorial: Growing a solar industry

Sunday, Oct. 28, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

Nevada Solar One, the world's third-largest solar power plant, leases land in the Eldorado Valley from Boulder City. The revenue helps shore up the budget in this city of about 16,000 people.

The plant, which opened in June, also adds 64 megawatts of electricity to the power grid. That's enough to power 40,000 homes, yet the output is small compared to that of coal-fired plants that generate between 800 and 1,500 megawatts.

When was the last time you heard about solar plants drawing protests?

Here in the West, coal plants are drawing increasing criticism, and not just from environmentalists. The Oct. 20 edition of The New York Times carried a lengthy story about a growing anti-coal sentiment among ranchers and farmers in Montana and Idaho.

The story pointed out that such sentiment "is a rising phenomenon in the West." The fear among those who work the land is that global warming is behind the drought threatening their way of life. Scientists say much of the cause of global warming can be traced to emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The Times also noted the recent rejection of a coal-fired plant by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment - on the sole grounds that it would contribute to global warming. Here in Nevada, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is strenuously opposing plans for three coal-fired plants (although Gov. Jim Gibbons, of course, supports them).

All of which gets us back to Boulder City and the solar plant that sits on just 350 of the 107,000 acres the city owns in the open and sunny Eldorado Valley.

Nevada Solar One, owned by Acciona Group , based in Madrid, Spain, would not have gotten off the ground without support from the federal and state governments.

We hope to see more of that kind of support so that one day a fair portion Boulder City's vast land holdings could serve as an international center for solar energy production and research.

The city already has at least one more solar proposal on the table, from a Swiss company that wants to lease six acres to build a 1 megawatt plant to demonstrate new technology.

While all proposals should be carefully scrutinized, our sense is that with anti-coal groups gaining momentum, the timing could not be better for a growing solar industry on the outskirts of Boulder City.