Department of Defense requirements have apparently thrown a shadow over a major advanced solar energy project in Nevada in one of the sunniest tracts in America. The ambitious project would have featured a field of specialized mirrors called heliostats for concentrating solar rays, a molten-salt storage facility, as well as a 600-foot power tower. The California-based firm SolarReserve had proposed the construction of $700 million solar/thermal power plant that would have covered two square miles in the empty desert near Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The project was sited near a defunct mining operation allowing it to connect the solar-powered turbines to the mine's former transmission lines. The location is also not far from the storied region known as Area 51.
US Air Force Colonel Howard D. Belote, commander of Nellis AFB said that this plan will simply not fly and urged the Interior Department�s Bureau of Land Management to clip its wings. Belote added that the project would compromise classified operations at a training range and would interfere with radar. The bureau owns most of Nevada, and controls more than 20 million acres of land with wind energy potential and more than 30 million acres with solar potential.
SolarReserve officials "did a lot of [research] with publicly available tools," Belote said. "But when they came back for an official look, the answer was, 'Man, that's still too close.' And because of the sensitivity [of information], I can't tell them why. . . . Unfortunately for them and us, there's stuff on the Nevada testing range we don't tell anyone about." Belote wants SolarReserve to try another site, either 100 miles to the southeast or about 80 miles to the northeast, near the town of Mesquite.
The Nevada plant was supposed to be a showcase for SolarReserve: one of the largest solar plants in the world, using heat-transfer technology developed for outer space by United Technologies. An array of mirrors called heliostats would focus sunlight on a receiver on a tall tower, where it would heat the molten salt to 1,050 degrees Fahrenheit, much hotter than other solar plants using similar technology. The molten salt would then flow to a storage tank, where its heat would generate steam and power conventional steam turbines similar to those in coal plants.
The project's unusual approach was to conquer the daylight/nightime generation challenge by using molten salt. The plant could store some 16 hours of power supply, thus providing power during darkness or rare cloudy periods. "We're trying to build a facility that runs 24 hours a day," said SolarReserve CEO Kevin B. Smith. The 100 megawatts installation could power about 50,000 homes. The firm based its design on a similar facility in California.
Executives at SolarReserve are chagrined about what they consider a reversal on the part of the U.S. Air Force, and feel that the service arm had pointed them toward the second site before rejecting it. Moreover, the Nellis base boasts its own photovoltaic panels -- the nation's largest solar photovoltaic power plant � where Colonel Belote hosted President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on a tour of the government solar facility on May 27, 2009.
Obama "got a nice tour of the facility, but I expect he had not been informed that Nellis was resisting renewable-energy facilities in the surrounding area," Smith said. "The fact that Nellis AFB allowed someone to build a PV [photovoltaic] facility on the base and sell them the power is great, but they are hiding behind it while they try and stop other development in the region." Smith noted that allowing the SolarReserve project to move forward would create many private-sector jobs.
The Air Force has previously nixed buildings near the 2.9 million acre flight-training range in Nevada, which makes up 41 percent of the Air Force's total training acres worldwide. In the past, the service has objected to other projects in nearby Las Vegas, as well as wind turbines. Not a few have leapt to conclusions because the solar project in the same vicinity as the fabled Area 51, legendary for bizarre flights and supposedly extra-terrestrial phenomenon.
SolarReserve's chief executive Smith said "we tried to make sure we had a site the Air Force wouldn't object to." The company's plan would place a lone solar-powered tower below a 2,000-foot-tall mountain range that separates their location from the base. The base sits well above the height of the tower.
Moving the SolarReserve project to Mesquite would mean starting from scratch, Smith feared, while the mayor of the town noted another solar company may locate to the area while adding that the town would have to study whether or not the SolarReserve project would interfere with plans to move the town�s airport. In any event, a green light from the BLM is vital to the project.
United Technologies and US Renewables Group are the two founding partners of the project. United Technologies has granted proprietary technology and an exclusive worldwide license to develop power plants using its technology that has been used in US space missions. US Renewables Group is a $575 million private equity firm focused on renewable power and clean fuel projects. It has experience developing renewable power projects, such as the Bottle Rock geothermal power plant and the Niagara biomass power plant. The project planned for Nevada would have harnessed the Sun�s rays to heat molten salt that in turn would propel electricity-producing turbines.
Cutting Edge senior correspondent Martin Barillas is editor of Energy Publisher.
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Has the Colonel had media training? It is clear from the quote that he was speaking "off the cuff" something a person in a leadership position should never do. The first rule of Public Relations, or as the military call it Public Affairs, is don't speak to the media unless you are absolutely certain your words won't come back to bite you (clearly Col Belote did not follow rule #1) and rule #2, don't speak to the media without experienced media counsel (clearly he did not follow rule #2). Kind of scary that someone in such a high position as he would be so ignorant of Public Relations 101.
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