NV Energy one-upped its huge 2018 storage and solar procurement on Tuesday, announcing three new solar jobs at 1,200 megawatts paired with 590 megawatts of battery storage.
Colin Smith, a senior solar analyst at Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables, called the procurement”hulkingly significant.” When assembled, among the projects — at 690 megawatts — are the largest solar plant in the U.S., according to tracking from WoodMac?
The three solar-plus-storage jobs, developed by 8minute Solar Energy, EDF Renewables and Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and Arevia Power, should be complete by 2023. Two will be built on the Moapa Band of Paiutes Indian River Reservation, in partnership with the tribe.
Aside from their large size, the contracts also come as a vote of confidence in utility-scale solar-plus-storage, according to analysts. Developer 8minute stated its job could run 65 percent of the period during peak summer hours, rather than the 29.9 percent availability of the average solar plant in Nevada.
“That’s really a paradigm shift from the utility needed to take my electricity whenever the sunlight was shining into the utility telling us exactly what their customer’s requirements are and we design and engineer a power plant to match those standards,” explained Tom Buttgenbach, president and CEO at 8minute. “The days of renewable equals irregular and also a hassle for utilities to incorporate in their systems is now reversed to where this delivers just what the utility needs.”
Doug Cannon, NV Energy’s president and CEO, said in a statement that the addition of battery storage”helps expand the advantages of these solar jobs.”
The Berkshire Hathaway-owned utility, that provides roughly 81 percent of the nation’s power, said the projects will push it past a goal to double renewable energy power between 2018 and 2023. Following the utility is currently working to fulfill a brand new 50 percent by 2030 renewable portfolio standard (RPS) handed this past year.
WoodMac’s Smith said the backend, big-time procurements show that utilities can make the fast transition towards renewable sources that’s under discussion in states and at the federal level through policies like the Green New Deal.
“When we return to the question of, how can we make the transition fast enough to assist climate change, it’s easy to point to somebody like NV Energy, which is a pretty large utility in a fairly big state,” said Smith. “They’re moving towards renewables at a pretty rapid pace.”
If the previous two years offer you any sign, NV will keep picking up renewables at a clip. The usefulness’s 2018 procurement totaled 1,001 megawatts using 100 megawatts of storage.
NV Energy did not respond to request for comment on where the latest projects place the utility in fulfilling the nation’s new RPS, but according to a 2018 report in the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy, the utility had consistently met the state’s requirements from 2013 to 2018.
NV Energy did not disclose electricity purchase agreement prices for the projects, but 8minute stated its project, in 300 megawatts of solar energy and 135-megawatts of 4-hour storage, will come in around $35 per megawatt hour. That’s comparable with the projects NV signed last year, which ranged between $30.94 and $36.94 a megawatt hour.
