4 Northwest Nevada solar projects proposed

Four solar companies are seeking permission to build electric generation projects in Northwest Nevada.

Candela Renewables has filed with the Public Utilities Commission for authorization to build a 500-megawatt solar generating facility in Churchill County.

The proposed project would be located north of Interstate 80 about 50 miles east of Reno on Bureau of Land Management land.

It includes not only a huge solar array but battery storage and a transmission line to connect to the grid.

The company simultaneously filed with BLM for authorization to use the land.

Named the Newlands Solar Project, it would require a total of 3,200 acres of land and three miles of corridor for its transmission lines.

The company is planning to begin construction in 2021 and the project would go on line in June 2022.

On the same day, Dec. 7, Crescent Valley Solar Energy filed an application to construct a power transmission line across BLM land in Lander County to connect the company’s planned 150 megawatt solar generating facility to the grid. The project is being built on private land in Crescent Valley.

That solar project requires a total of 1,280 acres of land and a transmission line corridor a tenth of a mile long to tie into NV Energy’s grid.

Operators hope to have it on line by November 2020.

Lovelock Solar has proposed a 190 megawatt solar plant on 1,735 acres of private land east of Oreana in Pershing County. No federal land is required for that project and the company hopes to finish construction by the end of 2022.

Finally, RE Prospect has filed for permission to build a mile-long transmission line that would connect its 175 megawatt solar project to the grid. That project is about seven miles northwest of Interstate 80 in Churchill County, 23 miles northeast of Fernley.

The solar field itself will be constructed on some 2,560 acres of private land but the transmission line will have to cross BLM land. Construction will take about 18 months.