by Jeniffer Solis, Nevada Current

Communities from Las Vegas to Reno can expect a boom of utility-scale solar developments in the coming years, after federal land managers approved a long-anticipated transmission line Monday meant to carry solar power across the West. 

Over the last year, the federal government has stepped up efforts to approve and fund utility-scale solar projects in Nevada, including a federal plan to open up about 12 million acres of public land in Nevada to solar development, more than twice as much as Utah — the next most affected state included in the federal plan.

That trend is likely to continue in Nevada after the U.S. Bureau of Land Management announced Monday it has approved NV Energy’s Greenlink West Transmission Project, a 472 mile long transmission line along the California border.

“We have moved at a speed that I think rarely, if ever, has been seen with a project of this size of its scope,” said Doug Cannon, the president and chief executive officer of NV Energy, during a press conference Monday. “Having this level of transmission capability available in the West is going to be a game changer.”

NV Energy said construction on Greenlink West is expected to begin in December, before becoming operational in Spring 2027. Upon completion, the project could transmit up to 4,000 megawatts of clean energy, enough to power at least 4.8 million homes.

The project is part of a Biden Administration effort to speed approval of major clean energy projects in order to decarbonize the U.S. electricity grid by 2035 — a feat that will require a massive buildout of new transmission infrastructure to move solar-generated power to cities.

On Monday, the Bureau of Land Management also announced approval of Arevia Power’s Libra Solar Project, which will stretch across 5,778 acres of public lands in Mineral County, Nevada. The Libra Project — the largest energy storage and solar project in Nevada history — was reviewed for environmental impacts and approved within a year of being proposed. 

“We are seeing incredible progress on Libra solar,” said Chris Brooks, the Senior Vice President of External Relations for Arevia.  “This time next year, we should have boots on the ground and steel in the dirt.”

Federal land managers also advanced two more energy projects in Nevada on Monday, including releasing a draft environmental analysis of the proposed Greenlink North Transmission Project, and the 5,133-acre Bonanza Solar Project near Las Vegas and Pahrump. 

The Greenlink North Transmission Project would stretch across 235-miles along Highway 50, crossing public lands through Eureka, Lander and Churchill counties, and ending near Yerington in Lyon County.

The project has attracted criticism from several conservation groups due to the project encroachment on wildlife habitat, including sage grouse habitat. The U.S. Geological Survey estimated that sage-grouse populations had dropped 80% since 1965 and 40% since 2002, and half of sagebrush rangelands are on the brink of collapse.

“The Greenlink North transmission line would blast a hole through the heart of Nevada’s sage-grouse country,” said Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The alignment we’ve seen proposed runs within 4 miles of 46 greater sage grouse mating grounds, causing massive habitat disturbance and possible abandonment.”

“This would be one of the most harmful actions the BLM has ever permitted for our favorite dancing birds and could lead to their listing under the Endangered Species Act. We’ll fight tooth and nail to stop this disastrous proposal,” he continued.

Earlier this year, the BLM advanced three other utility-scale solar projects on Nevada public lands that may soon reach approval: the Rough Hat Clark County Solar Project, Dry Lake East Energy Center Solar Project, and the Dodge Flat II Solar project.

Last month, the Biden Administration released new data showing their efforts to speed up the federal permitting has resulted in faster project approvals. According to the White House, the federal government has cut 6 months off the median time it takes for agencies to complete environmental impact statements.

Part of those efforts include the Coordinated Interagency Transmission Authorizations and Permits (CITAP) program, which the White House hopes will cut the permitting process for transmission projects down to a two-year timeline – twice as fast as the historical average of four years.

“We’re going to increase our ability to expand efficient and environmentally responsible solar projects on public lands,” said Acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior Laura Daniel-Davis Monday.

The scale of the Greenlink West Transmission Project along the California border will cost Nevada ratepayers, who will need to cover the growing cost of its construction.

NV Energy is currently seeking approval from the Nevada Public Utility Commission to add the cost of construction in progress to electric rates before the project is completed, a move that’s not typically permitted because it requires customers to pay for a service not yet provided. NV Energy says the increase is necessary to buffer “potential rate shock.”

‘The need is there and the interest is there’

Over the last four years, the BLM has approved 41 renewable energy projects on public lands, and are currently processing another 55 utility-scale project proposals across the West. The U.S. Department of Energy predicts that solar energy development across the United States will continue to increase rapidly over the next several decades.

Several rural Nevada counties are already seeing a rapid rise of solar proposals. As of June, there are 13 operational solar energy facilities in Nevada, covering about 20,000 acres of BLM-administered lands. In total, those facilities could generate 2,000 megawatts of electricity.

Daniel-Davis said the speed and scope of the energy projects being approved in Nevada this year is an effort “to meet the climate challenge” and retain Nevada’s leadership in clean energy generation.

“The need is there, and the interest is there,” Daniel-Davis said.

White House National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said the quick pace of major projects being announced and approved by the federal government is partially driven by demand after a flood of federal funding became available to the solar industry under the Inflation Reduction Act two years ago.

“Since then, you’ve seen solar deployment double in terms of pace last year, and then this year is set to be another record year. In terms of deployment of solar, we’re seeing massive amounts of capital formation,” Zaidi said.

Another factor is solar panel manufacturing capacity expanding after the COVID pandemic halted the supply chain, Zaidi said. The Inflation Reduction Act has offered generous tax incentives to solar panel producers, spurring manufacturers to enter the market.

Solar manufacturing capacity in the U.S. has nearly quadrupled since the Inflation Reduction Act became law, according to the ‘US Solar Market Insight Q3 2024’ published Monday by the Solar Energy Industries Association.

“This is what’s happening in America because of the legislation Joe Biden and Kamala Harris got through the United States Congress,” Zaidi said. “That’s just turned into an unprecedented expansion of American energy, all the way from the deployment, all the way up to the manufacturing that’s happened in the U.S.”