By Cy Ryan (contact)

Wed, Jul 23, 2008 (4 p.m.)

CARSON CITY — Gov. Jim Gibbons believes solar energy should be used in all future state buildings.

Gibbons made the statement after a ceremony in which Sierra Pacific Power Co., handed a $150,000 rebate to the Nevada Legislature to help pay off a new solar generating unit on a building that does the printing for the state. This rebate offsets more than half of the $276,000 cost of installing the solar panels that will generate 30 kilowatts of electricity.

This is a pilot project, the governor said, and it should set the stage for more use of the sun to power state buildings. The state Public Works Board should eventually include solar energy in buildings that the state builds, he said.

Meanwhile, Sierra Pacific and sister company Nevada Power are preparing to appear before the state Public Utilities Commission on Sept. 18 to explain why they both have failed to comply with a 2005 law that requires 5 percent of their power to be generated from the sun. They could face a fine for not achieving the required goal.

The utilities in April filed their annual report on renewal resources. Nevada Power was 42,272 megawatt short of meeting the target in 2007 and Sierra Pacific missed by 18,303 megawatts. The companies, in their report earlier this year, said they failed to meet the solar target because of a delay in the opening of the Nevada Solar One project in Boulder City.

The Solar One project has opened and is now selling solar energy to the two utilities. They said they expect to meet their solar requirement this year. And “on a per capita basis Nevada now leads the U.S. in the use of solar power,” the companies said.

At the same time the dedication was taking place in Carson City, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced UNLV will receive $738,000 from the Department of Energy for solar energy research. UNLV will look for ways to develop high efficiency and low-cost solar cells.