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twitterENERGY:
State faces obstacles to cashing in on the sun
Some see energy exports to California as revenue source for Nevada
Monday, March 9, 2009 | 2 a.m.
Chris Morris
Sun Archives
- The problem with renewable energy in Nevada (3-8-2009)
- Solar industry, unions heading for clash on jobs (2-28-2009)
- SIx questions: Michael Allman, CEO of Sempra Generation (2-2-2009)
- Silver State solar powering California utility customers (1-30-2009)
- Gibbons dedicates solar plant near Boulder City (1-22-2009)
Solar advocates call Nevada “a doughnut shop next to a police station.”
The reference is to neighboring California’s voracious appetite for renewable energy and Nevada’s prime ability to provide it.
In fact, according to the Energy Department, a 100-mile-long stretch of solar panels in the Nevada desert could power the entire country — and never run out of resources.
Regardless of the logistical implications of such a task, it’s an attractive thought, and often repeated.
But now some state lawmakers are asking whether Nevada gets enough in that equation.
Senate Energy Committee chairman Mike Schneider, D-Las Vegas, first raised the idea publicly last week that the state ought to find a way to derive revenue from renewable energy exported from the state.
To do that, lawmakers would have to overcome legal barriers.
The commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution has been interpreted to bar states from creating barriers to interstate commerce, including taxes on goods.
In addition, interstate transmission of energy is overseen by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Still, those in favor of the so-called sun energy extraction fee say they are seeking ways to get around expected hurdles.
Charles Benjamin, Nevada coordinator for Western Resource Advocates, has some theories.
Among them are to create an authority that would issue bonds to pay for transmission lines specifically for the purpose of exporting energy, and then charge users in other states to use the lines.
“That would not only pay off the bonds but create an income stream for the state,” Benjamin said.
Another idea Benjamin has discussed with lawmakers is to create an impact fee for using certain lands in the state.
“You could make the argument that the people in Nevada are getting energy from renewables and benefitting from the impacts on the land and aesthetic concerns,” Benjamin said. “But with exporting energy, what benefit are they getting?”
The answer to that question centers on job creation: Benjamin and others argue that solar energy plants don’t employ enough people to have a significant enough economic impact on the state without an added fee. Others disagree.
Photovoltaic solar arrays, which convert sunlight to energy, need minimal manpower to operate. The 10 megawatt Sempra plant that opened recently in Boulder City, exporting energy to a Northern California utility, has one permanent employee.
Solar thermal plants, which use the heat from the sun to power turbines, require more employees — the 64 megawatt Acciona plant in Boulder City has about two dozen full-time employees.
Solar plants of both types do create many temporary construction jobs, however. The Sempra plant had more than 100 employees during construction, 65 percent of whom were Nevada residents.
In fact, solar developers and advocates say the economic impact of job creation from solar plants should not be underestimated.
Jim Baak, a policy director for large-scale solar projects at the San Francisco-based solar advocacy organization Vote Solar, is working on a study that he says will show that solar plants built from 2010 to 2015 and generating a total of 2,000 megawatts would directly and indirectly add
$10 billion in economic benefits. The plants would create 6,000 construction jobs a year and would provide 1,200 full-time jobs at the plants once they are complete.
“That’s pretty significant employment numbers,” Baak said.
Baak and other solar advocates and developers say Nevada must carefully nurture a still nascent industry that is a natural fit for a state full of flat lands and sunny skies. As they gain a foothold, manufacturing plants could then be lured here, creating a greater number of permanent jobs.
Another source of permanent jobs is found in the manufacture of components for solar energy plants.
Already Nevada has attracted Ausra, a plant that develops reflectors and other parts for utility-scale solar thermal projects. Ausra plans to employ 50 workers when it reaches peak production in 2010.
But the state has also missed out on some opportunities for attracting similar ventures, including a $100 million plant that the Germany-based Schott recently announced it is building in Albuquerque. Schott plans to employ 350 initially and 1,500 eventually.
“Neighboring states are being much more aggressive” in offering incentives for solar manufacturing, Baak said.
Some economists are not convinced manufacturing will necessarily follow solar plants and believe Nevada will not benefit much from exporting solar energy unless it can derive direct revenue from the exports.
By way of comparison, “we have lots of cars but we don’t manufacture them here,” said Keith Schwer, director of the Center for Business and Economic Development at UNLV, who completed a study of economic benefits of renewable energy five years ago.
“We have a comparative advantage of the solar hitting the earth because the desert is great for that,” Schwer said. “But there’s no gain for the state if it is generated here and sold off elsewhere because there are not that many jobs created.”
Benjamin believes such a tax could inspire more enthusiasm in the state for solar plants.
“The golden state could be a gold mine for Nevada,” Benjamin said. “What I’m trying to do is promote the idea that renewable energy could provide a revenue stream to the state from California.”
Just relying on construction jobs for building the plants is “too short term,” he said. “Nevada needs a revenue stream that is steady, and renewable energy is never going to run out. It could stabilize funding for schools and infrastructure in Nevada and help pay for the transmission infrastructure that we need to develop renewable energy for the state.”
But other solar advocates, developers and analysts say Nevada would be shooting itself in the foot if it does anything to make solar power harnessed in Nevada potentially more costly than that from other Southwestern states.
“I think anything that makes it more costly for these plants to produce and export power is going to be detrimental,” Baak said. “The whole concept here is we’re looking for incentives and abatements in the early years of solar projects, when they don’t have the economies of scale and the efficiencies that a more established technology would have.
“Once they start getting more and more of them, the production costs go down.”
Sun reporter David McGrath Schwartz contributed to this story.
Discussion: 15 comments so far…
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California has the same topography and sun energy per square foot as Nevada. Sounds like we are mining the tax payer again.
Export it all! The article does not mention that Sempra hired all the construction workers out of Nicaragua! Sempra has ONE full time employee! They created ONE job!
Solar is inefficient when the energy needs to be transported and lost in powerlines for hundreds of miles.
Of course, if you put it on the roof, you can still have manufacturing jobs, little if any impact to the environment, more efficient clean energy production, no natural gas plant backup and a system where people in an economically depressed economy could sell their power that they are not using back to the electric company. This is a good way for California to save energy as well! Too bad the people at the Sun hate the desert so much,they want to dig it all up. I guess that would create ten full time jobs?
The Sun has proved itself to be amazingly ignorant and very anti-environment. I guess the big industrial desert scraping solar boondoggles are giving the Sun very big advertising dollars? The green in the green economy is just $$$$$$$.
Yeah, I'm noticing how this "green" energy seems to be more about money than helping global warming or whatever. How to cash in on the sun and ruin our open spaces at the same time.
Hey California, put all your solar in the owens valley and the mojave, plenty of sun there.
Sorry, I forgot, the same people who won't let drill offshore won't let you install solar/wind in the desert.
We will never be energy independent with all the whackos we have running around.
I have confidence in Mike Schneider to get it right for Nevada.
I have wondered many times over the years with all the talk of
changing the energy paradigm why Nevada hasn't taken the lead
in solar energy. Let's go! Show some leadership and ingenuity!
I would like to think the leadership in Nevada is smart enough to
generate the power and market the resource to benefit the state. LET'S GO!
Why does solar and wind needs tons of taxpayer help?
Because it is a very expensive energy source and will only survive because of mandates to purchase it.
Investors do not see much profit in it.
They are waiting for the tax dollars to roll in to make money.
The NIMBYISM found in these comment threads is exhausting.
Sorry guys, but the idea that placing solar panels on roofs to meet our energy needs will not work. We will need, at least over the next 20-30 years, continued use of centralized energy projects with supporting transmission. In order to mitigate ghg emissions, we will need to replace existing coal plants with wind, geothermal, and solar.
Just waiting for nance to talk about reliability and costs. Come on nance, lay it down, AGAIN. Nobody is listening.
I can only hope that the elected officials in Carson City will quickly figure out a way for NV to earn a bit of sustainable cashflow for the use of these lands. But this story reads like they're trying to come up with the absolute greediest way possible to squeeze an industry that is going create so much more than a job or ten.
And, is energy a "good" or a "service"? Seems like a "service" to me; certainly isn't tangible, though the results of it are.
Uh....even Obama is not targeting to replace coal with wind, geothermal and solar in 30 years.
Even he is not that dumb.
You need to get on the same page as your Messiah.
Nance-
Wait and See. Hydro power in the West has been greatly displaced by coal over the past 40 years due to issues with river impacts, fisheries, and general flow issues. Just look at the portfolio of energy running on WAPA. We will start decommissioning dirty coal plants in the next 10 years, maybe sooner with a carbon tax and coal costs rising, and then replace them with the new generation of energy.
As for subsidies for renewable energy, they have paled in comparison with subsidies and giveaways to coal, nuclear, oil and gas. What we spend on transmission over he next 10 years is also a fraction of what we have given away to the fossil fuel and nuclear industries... and then you have co-ops, mostly fueled by coal, which exist because of government support.
https://www.motherearthnews.com/article....
How did this happen? Follow the money in politics and lobbying nance... the fossil fuel lobby has spent 100's of millions over the past 40 years to ensure they get the biggest piece of the pie.
"Sorry guys, but the idea that placing solar panels on roofs to meet our energy needs will not work. We will need, at least over the next 20-30 years, continued use of centralized energy projects with supporting transmission. In order to mitigate ghg emissions, we will need to replace existing coal plants with wind, geothermal, and solar."
Only a fool would think that our fearless leaders are going to replace our energy needs with industrial wind and solar farms alone. Natural gas backup is pretty much required for all odf these plants.Onion is buying mainstream propaganda like foolish real estate investors buy swampland. Roof top potential could trump most CSPplants put together. The new breed of liberal seems to be free floating in the whole media Bush backlash. But Onion talks the talk for Treehugger.com without really objectivly looking at the issues. Educated by the Internet. The clueless are having their day!
What people like Onion don't get is that each time he cries NIMBY, he is giving us a pat on the back. Of course we love our back yard. There are a bunch of us in this town alone and we aint goin' away for these renewable plans that will only expedite the production of greenhouse gas!
All NV wants is jobs and $$$ ... OK
For Nevada, a new fresh water Source and associated infrastructure will provide the greatest returns in achieving economic recovery,
tremendous job growth, greater efficiency and farm productivity.
A truly new non-tributary Source that can be developed to provide Nevada with a million acre feet each year has been offered to the Bureau of Reclamation and other water agenceis for verification and investigation.
Development of the Source will not damage the environment or the water rights of others.
Adequate water is needed to provide a more stable base of employment and sustainable benefits. Water not only helps jump-start and sustain the economy, but also leads to improvements in efficiency and better utilization of vital infrastructure.
Investments in a million acre
feet of renewable fresh water each year will bolster the basic construction industry as well as technology and manufacturing industries where
the use of equipment that supports these needs drives a much wider base of the economy.
In the long-run it's critical that Nevada gain competitive advantages that are part of the solution to repay the massive debt we are
incurring. One option for part of the new water would be to let it accumulate in Lake Mead to keep it reasonably full ( 28.5 million acre
feet) and generating 2000 megawatts of renewable energy every year.
Ray Walker (Retired Water Rights Analyst) waterrdw@yahoo.com
Water source the fact that you think nevada is running out of water is testament to wrong stupidity. nevada is not running out of water california is take a look at the river allotments and who gets the most water...the water rights were from 100 years ago and NEED TO BE REVISED... CALIFORNIA SHOULD BE BUILDING DESALINATION PLANTS OR CURBING THEIR WATER USE... THE MISCONCEPTION THAT LAS VEGAS IS RUNNING OUT OF WATER IS A ----MYTH--- IF YOU ACTUALLY HAVE DONE YOUR OWN RESEARCH AND KNOW WHAT YOUR TALKING ABOUT
Wyoming stashes a billion dollars in the banks every year from its mineral royalties (mostly coal). We all pay for that, especially kids with asthema. If we can get our collective heads screwed on AT ALL, we will have a similar support (yes "support") for the people of Nevada who are living in a solar gold mine. Sans child asthema. Get your hands busy doing the productive, clean thing, instead of wringing them over a bunch of lawyers.