EGEB: Largest US solar plant planned for Nevada, new method to purify water with solar energy, more

In today’s EGEB:

• Nevada utility NV Energy announces big solar plans.
• Researchers develop a new method of solar steam generation.
• Rhode Island gets the US headquarters of a UK wind power company.
• New York communities band together for lower renewable rates.

Electrek Green Energy Brief: A daily technical, financial, and political review/analysis of important green energy news.

Nevada utility NV Energy announced three new solar projects in southern Nevada totaling 1200 MW of new solar PV generation, with an added 590 MW of battery storage. The three projects are:

• Arrow Canyon Solar Project – 200 megawatt solar photovoltaic project with a 75 megawatt – 5 hour battery storage system. The project will be located in Clark County, NV, 20 miles northeast of Las Vegas on the Moapa Band of Paiutes Indian Reservation. It is being developed by EDF Renewables North America, a market leading independent power producer and service provider with over 30 years of expertise in renewable energy. EDF Renewables’ North American portfolio consists of 16 gigawatts of developed projects and 10 gigawatts under service contracts.
• Southern Bighorn Solar & Storage Center – 300 megawatt solar array that includes a 135 megawatt-4 hour Li-Ion battery energy storage system. The project will be built in Clark County, NV on the Moapa River Indian Reservation about 30 miles north of Las Vegas. It is being developed by 8minute Solar Energy, the largest independent developer of solar PV and storage projects in the United States, with over 15 gigawatts of solar and storage under development in California, the Southwest, Texas, and the Southeast, with more than 2 gigawatts of solar power plants now in operation.
• Gemini Solar + Battery Storage Project – 690 megawatt solar photovoltaic array coupled with a 380 megawatt AC battery storage system. The project will be located in Clark County, NV 25 miles northeast of Las Vegas on approximately 7,100 acres of federally-owned land under the management of the Bureau of Land Management. It is being developed by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners in collaboration with Arevia Power, who are managing the development phases of the project. Quinbrook is a specialist investment manager focused exclusively on lower carbon and renewable energy infrastructure investment and operational asset management.

Wood Mackenzie analysts said Gemini would be the largest solar project in the US, as per Greentech Media. But of course, that’s always subject to change.

Solar Steam

Researchers at the University of Chicago and the affiliated Argonne National Laboratory have developed a new method of solar steam generation. The method, which can be used to purify water, shows potential for large-scale manufacturing.

The method was published in Advanced Materials. It uses a flexible porphyrin organic framework (POF)-based engineering method to produce solar steam generators with high efficiency:

POFs, a recently discovered class of materials, are demonstrated to grow readily on a diverse range of porous substrates, including membranes, fabrics, sponges, and wood. Wood@POF exhibits particularly strong performance, achieving ≈80% light‐to‐steam conversion efficiency. This study demonstrates a universal, simple, and scalable interface engineering strategy for the fabrication of solar steam generators based on POF materials.

POFs were found to grow on a wide range of materials, with promising photo thermal properties seen in each case, though researchers will have to see how well the method works outside of a lab setting.

UK to RI

UK-based wind turbine service company GEV Wind Power has selected Rhode Island for its US headquarters, the Associated Press reports.

Rhode Island is becoming a leader in offshore wind in the US — as is New England, and the Northeast in general — and this will only do more to establish its place in the burgeoning industry.

The state’s commerce corporation approved a $1.9 million tax credit for GEV. Commerce Secretary Stefan Pryor said GEV would stay in North Kingstown, R.I. for at least 12 years.

Join Together

Six communities in New York’s Hudson Valley have created Hudson Valley Community Power (HVCP), a coalition that will procure 100% affordable renewable energy.

Residents and business from all six communities — the city of Beacon, village of Cold Spring, town of Fishkill, town of Marbletown, town of Philipstown, and city of Poughkeepsie — have selected 100% renewable electricity as the default supply at a rate that’s lower than other non-renewable sources in the area would provide. Marbletown Supervisor Rich Parete said,

“We’re excited to move forward. This is a win-win-win opportunity for our residents in that they get a price that is roughly half a penny per kWh less than what they paid Central Hudson over the last year, they’re protected against a volatile market with fixed rates for the next two years, and they are buying electricity generated from only renewable power sources.”

The program will go into effect on July 1. In addition to automatic enrollment in that program, customers can also join an HVCP community solar program.