Nevada is all in on solar power
Today in Nevada, about one-third of all energy demand is met by solar panels. The state has the highest solar electricity generation per capita in the country, as well as the most solar-industry jobs per capita.
It comes down to cost.
Take the Strip. It uses more electricity than 300,000 households, which is more than the rest of Las Vegas combined.
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The state's biggest employer, MGM Resorts International, which has 11 properties on the Strip, is betting on solar. 'It gave us control of what we're going to pay for energy over the next few decades,' said Henry Shields, MGM's vice president for research and analytics.
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MGM installed 26,000 panels on the roof of Mandalay Bay, an enormous casino and convention center at the Strip's southern end.
Then, northeast of the city near a place called Dry Lake, on a valley slope tilted toward the rising sun and dotted with sagebrush and red barrel cacti, MGM teamed up with a clean energy company to build an array of 322,000 panels. The panels now provide 90% of MGM's daytime power.
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And the company is investing in a similar facility, coupled with large batteries for storage, that will power things into the evening.
'For a long time, the hospitality industry wanted to make power consumption invisible -- like, just come here and forget about that kind of thing,' said Michael Gulich, MGM's sustainability executive. 'Now we advertise it.'
In 2019, Nevada pledged to produce half of its electricity from renewables by 2030. That goal is enshrined in its state constitution.
Solar energy companies have flocked to the state. On a surface level, it's easy to see why: 97% of annual daylight hours in and around Las Vegas are unblemished by clouds.
Off the Strip, away from guys dancing in gorilla costumes, gals in American-flag bikinis and the tipsy tourists stumbling around in Tommy Bahama shirts, is a much quieter city.
And it is one where scarcity, not excess, is front of mind. Water use is strictly policed. Lawns are banned. Southern Nevada has a water patrol that drives around ticketing those who violate conservation rules.
'People here saw the writing on the wall years ago,' said Lauren Boitel, who directs ImpactNV, a sustainability nonprofit founded by the state and former casino executives.
'I've been here 35 years,' she said. 'We've decreased the water we use per capita by half, even as the population has doubled. We're world leaders even if Vegas usually gets dinged for this perception of waste.'
That other Vegas, an expanse of strip malls and gated communities spread across an enormous arid plain, is also home to the greatest concentration of residential rooftop solar in the continental United States.
State and federal tax credits help. The city makes it easy, too. 'You're pretty much in and out of our office with a permit in 30 minutes,' said Marco Velotta, the city's chief sustainability officer.
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The demand for rooftop solar comes from all kinds of people, local installation companies said.
At the corner of Man O War Street and Real Quiet Drive, in a subdivision called Lamplight Estates, one man named Dave, who was decked out in a National Rifle Association hat and shirt, said his decision to install solar came down to cost.
'People just want to be efficient, you know,' he said. He declined to give his full name.
Autumn Hood - who called herself a real believer in sustainability - made a similar point. Rooftop panels have saved her money and made her feel more independent. But any climate concerns were secondary.
Both said they could pay off their investment through savings on electric bills in less than 10 years.
At the level of a single household, rooftop solar offsets only a tiny amount of greenhouse gas emissions. If many people do it, however, all of those individual choices can make an entire grid less fossil-fuel dependent.
'When we all do it, and when industry does it, it's a different story,' Hood said.
This article originally appeared in
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