The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN) has cleared the way for local utility NV Energy to acquire 600 MW AC solar with 480 MW battery energy storage system (BESS) capacity from Primergy Solar that will replace the utility's coal-fired 522 MW North Valmy Generating Station.
Of the two facilities that will replace the coal power station are 250 MW AC Iron Point Solar Project with 200 MW battery storage with commissioning deadline of December 2023, and 350 MW AC Hot Pot Solar Project with 280 MW storage. The Hot Pot Solar Project will come online by December 2024. Both the projects will be located in Humboldt County.
Specialist investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners' owned Primergy Energy has entered Build Transfer Agreements for the sale and purchase of the projects with NV Energy.
According to Primergy, these 2 projects support the utility's transition to renewable energy, while also offering a 'very compelling and cost competitive' source of carbon free power to the state of Nevada.
The solar developer says its total Nevada portfolio now exceeds 1.3 GW AC of solar and 3,330 MWh of BESS, after counting in 690 MW Gemini Solar Project with 380 MW solar powered battery storage facility for which Maxeon Solar Technologies is supplying bifacial panels (see Maxeon Lands 1.8 Million Bifacial Module Order For US).
To achieve the country's 100% carbon free electricity goal by 2035, the US government is making efforts to ease land availability for large scale renewable energy projects. In December 2021, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) launched a solicitation process for solar energy development on close to 90,000 acres of public land in Colorado, Nevada and New Mexico (see 90,000 Acres US Public Land For Utility Scale Solar).