Renewable Energy in Nevada

Nevada Energy Fact Sheet

Energy Efficiency and Energy Consumption in Nevada. Fact sheet put together by the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project - NevadaEnergyFactSheet-201604.pdf

Renewable Energy Transmission Access Advisory Committee Final Report

Executive Summary

Nevada was one of the first states to adopt a Renewable Portfolio Standard. The Portfolio Energy Standard is commonly referred to as the “RPS,” or simply the “Portfolio Standard.” Since its inception in 1997 the RPS has been modified by the Legislature several times. Currently Nevada’s RPS encompasses both renewable energy and energy efficiency. The RPS requires the state’s investor owned electric utilities (NV Energy and Nevada Power Companies) to generate, acquire, or save electricity from renewable energy systems or energy efficiency measures of not less than 20 percent by 2015.

Renewable energy development has accelerated with the implementation of the RPS. To facilitate delivering this new energy to users it is recognized that transmission adequacy must be assessed, limitations identified and new electrical interconnects proposed. The Renewable Energy Transmission Access Advisory Committee (“RETAAC” or “the Committee”) initiated this process of review. Wind, solar, geothermal and biomass potential was examined using the best available databases and models.

Recommendations

Available transmission access was compared to these renewable energy zones and areas of constraint were overlaid on the resulting maps. Three recommendations were made by the committee:
#1 The Governor’s Office support the construction of transmission lines and collector systems to enable access for renewable energy development in each of the identified Renewable Energy Zones.
#2 The Governor’s Office support the construction of a transmission line to connect the state’s northern and southern electric grids of sufficient capacity to provide Nevada Power with their non solar renewable energy requirements from the abundant geothermal and wind resources in northern Nevada and provide NV Energy access to the abundant solar resources in southern Nevada.
#3 Initiate Phase II of the RETAAC to define the environmental and physical feasibility issues, costs and potential financing mechanisms associated with the recommended transmission routes beginning in first quarter 2008 with a completion date of December 31, 2008.