NV Energy Requests Approval For 4¢/kWh 100 MW Solar Farm & Early Closure Of Coal Power Plant

Sign up for daily news updates from CleanTechnica on email. Or follow us on Google News!

NV EnergyA request to approve a new 100 megawatt solar energy project, as well as a request to close one of the utility’s coal-fired power plants 10 months earlier than expected, has been filed by NV Energy as part of its most recent Emissions Reduction and Capacity Replacement second amendment filing.

To provide more details, the coal-fired power plant that the Nevada utility giant wants to close early is the 257 megawatt (MW) Reid Gardner Generation Station. The new 100 MW Boulder City solar photovoltaic (PV) project would possess an average lifetime cost of electricity of around $0.04 per kilowatt-hour (kWh), according to the filing, which is the lowest price we’ve seen for a US solar farm, and is well below the price of electricity from a new coal, nuclear, or natural gas power plant.

“At an average cost of energy for the life of the project at approximately four cents per kilowatt-hour, this is one of the lowest-cost solar projects in the nation,” stated NV Energy’s senior vice president of energy supply, Kevin Geraghty. “And, we are very pleased with the fact that Techren has already signed a work-site agreement with local unions 357 and 396 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.”

NV Energy has reportedly already signed a 25-year power-purchase-agreement (PPA) with Techren Solar, following the firm’s selection through a Request for Proposals (RfP) issued earlier this year by the utility company.

The recent filing is apparently requesting that the PUC make its final decision on the potential Eldorado Valley solar PV project by the end of 2016. If approved, the project is currently expected to be operational by the end of 2018.

Naturally, this story is just one example of the massive shift from coal power to renewable energy.

Image via NV Energy


Have a tip for CleanTechnica? Want to advertise? Want to suggest a guest for our CleanTech Talk podcast? Contact us here.

Latest CleanTechnica TV Video


Advertisement
 
CleanTechnica uses affiliate links. See our policy here.

James Ayre

James Ayre's background is predominantly in geopolitics and history, but he has an obsessive interest in pretty much everything. After an early life spent in the Imperial Free City of Dortmund, James followed the river Ruhr to Cofbuokheim, where he attended the University of Astnide. And where he also briefly considered entering the coal mining business. He currently writes for a living, on a broad variety of subjects, ranging from science, to politics, to military history, to renewable energy.

James Ayre has 4830 posts and counting. See all posts by James Ayre