The Trump administration has approved what promises to be one of the largest solar-plus-storage projects in the world.
Owned by investment manager Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners LLC, the Gemini Solar + Battery Storage Project is under development by Arevia Power. The proposed project will have 690 MW of solar power capacity, backed by 380 MW of energy storage. Projected to cost $1 billion and located on U.S. Bureau of Land Management land 30 miles from Las Vegas, Gemini will be able to store and deploy more than 1,400 MWh that "can be used when the power is needed the most," the BLM said in a May 11 press release.
David Scaysbrook, co-founder and managing partner of Quinbrook, said in a press release that the Interior Department's final decision to approve the project "clears the pathway for Quinbrook, and our development partners at Arevia, to accelerate completion of detailed project designs and procurement plans for one of the world's largest renewables projects ever undertaken."
Proponents had expressed concern that the administration would delay the project, even after the Bureau of Land Management issued a favorable environmental impact statement in December. But the Trump administration said that Gemini furthers the president's objectives of boosting domestic energy production and promoting "clean and safe" development of energy resources while streamlining the environmental review process.
"As our economy rebounds from the invisible enemy, President [Donald] Trump is working to make the United States stronger than ever before," Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt said in a separate press statement, referring to the COVID-19 pandemic. "Our economic resurgence will rely on getting America back to work, and this project delivers on that objective."
The administration said the Gemini facility will generate enough electricity to power 260,000 homes in the Las Vegas area and in Southern California and will be the largest solar project in the U.S. and the eighth-largest in the world. It is expected to create up to 700 construction jobs, and support an additional 1,100 jobs in the local community, according to the BLM. It could also produce $3 million in revenue annually for the federal government.
The project will be constructed in two phases, the first of which could come online in 2021, according to the BLM. It is a part of Nevada regulators' 1,000-MW energy storage target by 2030. Berkshire Hathaway Energy subsidiary NV Energy Inc. has a 25-year power purchase agreement on the project.