100 Square Miles of Solar on Public Lands: Esmeralda County, Nevada, Solar Applications
^Lone Mountain with snow, March 2019, Nye County, Nevada, with utility-scale solar projects proposed for the basin just below.
September 1, 2021 - Tonopah, Nye County, NV - Various solar developers are scurrying to place applications for very large photovoltaic solar projects on public lands in the Great Basin, in the latest solar gold rush to mark territory along the proposed high-voltage Greenlink West Transmission Project. If this 525 kiloVolt long transmission line were to be built, it would open up nearly every basin in southwestern Nevada from Reno to Las Vegas to large-scale solar energy project development.
So far the applications amount to approximately 63,000 acres--nearly 100 square miles of solar development!
Basin and Range Watch toured the area today along with filmmaker Justin McAffee, despite the heavy smoke flowing from the Caldor Fire and other California wildfires--which raises the question: with so many hundreds of thousands of acres of Sierran and Cascade habitats going up in flames, do we need to destroy more desert habitat for industrial energy projects, when solar panels can very easily go on already-disturbed lands, and onto rooftops and over parking lots? With climate change looming, we need to preserve every last acre of intact, healthy native plant communities and wildlife habitat, including these undisturbed Nevada basins.
^A core Pronghorn antelope herd area exists in this basin. We saw a herd of antelope on our tour of the proposed solar development application area today, at the far southern end of Big Smoky Valley. Solar projects would impact these antelope. Photo by Kevin Emmerich.
Here is the press release from Bureau of Land Management in full, which we distributed far and wide throughout our grassroots network, since BLM failed to notice this widely to the public and local communities which would be effected (we noted that after repeated calls today by Basin and Range Watch for more information, and threats of Freedom of Information Act requests, BLM has updated this page today to include links to Plans of Development for most of the solar projects--we attempt to include these links, but please visit the original BLM press release page if links do not work; we also are archiving these PDFs because we have noticed renewable energy documents disappearing over the years from government websites):
BLM TO HOST VIRTUAL PUBLIC MEETINGS FOR PROPOSED SOLAR PROJECTS NEAR ESMERALDA SUBSTATION
CARSON CITY, Nev. – In support of the Biden-Harris administration’s goal to permit 25 gigawatts of renewable energy on public lands by 2025 and to achieve 100 percent carbon pollution-free energy by 2035, the Bureau of Land Management will host two virtual public meetings to discuss proposed solar and energy storage projects on Wednesday, Sept. 8, and Thursday, Sept. 9.
These proposed projects would be located in the vicinity of the Esmeralda Substation and the proposed 525-kilovolt GreenLink West transmission line in unincorporated Esmeralda County. Six applicants have requested right-of-way grants to construct, operate and decommission seven solar projects on public lands, as follows:
Esmeralda Solar Energy Center Project [link removed as of 9-1-2021?], NextEra Energy Resources: 500-megawatt solar and energy storage project on approximately 8,804 acres of public lands.
Nivloc Solar Energy Project, Invenergy Solar: 500-megawatt solar and energy storage project on approximately 8,635 acres of public lands.
Smoky Valley Solar Project, ConnectGen: 1,000-megawatt solar and energy storage project on approximately 5,128 acres of public lands.
Rhyolite Ridge I Solar Project, 8minute Solar Energy: 600-megawatt solar and energy storage project on approximately 6,368 acres of public lands.
Rhyolite Ridge II Solar Project, 8minute Solar Energy: 600-megawatt solar and energy storage project on approximately 6,810 acres of public lands.
Gold Dust Solar, Arevia Power: 1500-megawatt solar photovoltaic and 1,000 MW battery energy storage project on approximately 17,018 acres of public lands.
Esmeralda Solar Project, Leeward Renewable Energy: 650 MW solar and energy storage project on approximately 8,700 acres of public lands.
The purpose of these public meetings is to provide information on the proposed projects and to solicit public input which will be incorporated into applications for Variance Approval as required by the Solar Energy Development Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement Record of Decision. Topics will include an overview of the projects, discussion of size, capacity, structures, timeline and environmental concerns that are known at this time.
Meeting information for Sept. 8, 6:30-7:30 p.m. PDT is as follows:
Video conference: https://dudek.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IJ-u4KhFRbSqNLEFzOE6Wg. To access by phone, dial 1-866-807-9684. Please ask to be connected to the Pine Nut and Mason Valley call.
Meeting information for Sept. 9, 6:30-7:30 p.m. PDT is as follows:
Video conference: https://dudek.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_IJ-u4KhFRbSqNLEFzOE6Wg. To access by phone, dial 1-669-900-6833 or 1-929-205-6099, passcode 971-8284-4088. You will be connected to the Esmerelda Solar Variance Projects meeting.
For more information contact Greg Helseth at 775-885-6000.
^Lone Mountain, an ancient granitic core of a Jurassic volcano from 200 million years ago when this part of Nevada was part the Limestone Sea. This was then a volcanic island in that sea, perhaps inhabited by dinosaurs. The basin in the foreground, with widespread greasewood plant communities and playas, is the site of one of the many proposed solar projects in this area west of Tonopah, Nevada. This is intact, undisturbed habitat. Photo May 2016, by Laura Cunningham.
^Lone Mountain and Smoky Valley seen from a volcanic hill. October 2016.
Check back here in the coming days with more updates. Basin and Range Watch is the only organization, apparently, tracking these energy projects on public lands, and reporting the information in detail.
^Detail of a map we obtained today from BLM, showing the complex of solar project applications in Big Smoky Valley, Esmeralda County, Nevada, west of Tonopah along US 95 and south towards Silver Peak. Also shows a solar project application east of Goldfield on rough and hilly country at the border of the Nevada Test and Training Range--we can't imagine this application moving further. Clayton Valley is misspelled.
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