Plans are for ENN Mojave Energy Corp. to build the megadevelopment on 9,000 acres of land it would buy from Clark County. Over several years of investment and growth, the development is projected to create 2,000 permanent, high-paying jobs.So what’s going on with the project? Has the land been purchased yet?
The company wanted to begin construction of a plant to build solar cells this year or early next year, but the land deal still isn’t done. Getting a deal is taking longer than expected, said Commissioner Steve Sisolak, whose district includes the land.
“Unfortunately, in a development this large and complex, you get many attorneys on each side and they parse every single sentence,” Sisolak said. “While it’s painful sitting through those meetings, and I’ve sat through several, we’re making progress.”
Then after the land is purchased, do the shovels hit the ground and the solar panel-development plant get built?
That would be nice. But there are big obstacles.
Sisolak says it could be 18 months before construction begins.
What obstacles?
After the county and ENN seal a land-purchase deal, the county is essentially done with the project. Then it comes down to U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, the majority leader.
Reid is a key player, Sisolak said, because he can help facilitate talks between ENN and California energy companies. That is important because ENN will not build the plant, even if it owns the land, unless it has a customer willing to purchase the electricity the project will generate.
“He’s working on it,” the commissioner said of Reid. “He opens doors.”
Any idea about the progress on agreements between ENN and California utilities?
Reid could not be reached for comment. But while the senator is in the best position to “open doors,” his aims don’t appear to square with those of California Gov. Jerry Brown.
Brown has said he’d like California to become an exporter of energy, not an importer. Then again, Brown also created a greater demand for renewable energy in California by signing into law a mandate that state utilities get 33 percent of their power from renewable sources. That’s an increase from 20 percent.
Nevada lawmakers in 2009 approved a 25 percent mandate for the Silver State, which takes effect in 2025.
The longer it takes to get a power-purchase agreement, the more time it gives California companies to develop renewable energy plants, making it more difficult for ENN to strike a deal.
So we shouldn’t be moving down to Laughlin and lining up for a new job just yet?
Not just yet.
SOURCE: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/nov/13/big-plans-laughlin-solar-plant-are-bogged-down/
3 comments:
This is just another example, that centralized, installations, which are ownd by monopolists, are NOT the future. We need small, overseeable units, which are owned and operated by the users! Power to the People. People to the Power. People are the Power.
Economies of scale require large investments, either by government (one type of "monopoly" or private equity (another type) or public corporations (a third type of "monopoly.") And these supposed monopolies do compete can be regulated. Small scale projects sound great, but are often wasteful. Imagine a home with solar panels, a wind turbine, large batter pack, and a small buried modular nuclear power source for periods of prolonged cloud cover or low wind. Or perhaps its own private geo-thermal well. Multiply that by all the homes in US, compare that cost and "ugly" or "not in my neighborhood" protests and things are not so rosy for total decentralization.
Imagine each home raising its own food, for example.
Many of these ideas are great with wide open spaces between homes, like in Daniel Boone's day, or in remote areas, and will likely be implemented there. Solar panels were used in remote areas years ago.
Fear of monopoly pricing power was alleviated by regulation. De-regulation gave us Enron and the gaming of the energy sector. California is very leery of any similar "solution" rightly so.
But re-regulation is coming back slowly, in spite of the some free market dreamers or anti-market dreamers.
I PREDICT:
Home depot will not be selling compact off-grid home energy sources for many years if at all.
But more BIG PROJECTS will start up that have to risk huge funds in hopes of sharing the income from eletricity charges to customers.
And in remote areas, more small groups will get "off the grid" given the space, resources, and maintenance ability.
Clayton--
In my area of New England a freak Halloween snowstorm took out the power distribution network for a week. Our local Home Depot is already doing a land office business in compact off-the-grid home energy sources.
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