Environment

KCET: Moapa Band sells power from solar plant to Los Angeles





"The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) has agreed to buy all the power produced by a 250-megawatt solar facility on the Moapa River Paiute Reservation northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada. The Moapa Solar Energy Center, being built by K Road Power, will place photovoltaic arrays and a concentrating solar power tower on about 1,000 acres of tribal land about 35 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The plant, the first utility-scale solar facility approved on tribal lands in the U.S., was given the green light in June by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar -- welcome news to many in the Moapa Band of Paiutes, who hoped the plant would help phase out a nearby coal-fired power station. So far, it hasn't.

LADWP will also be buying up to 210 megawatts of solar electricity from Sempra Gas and Power's Copper Mountain Solar 3 facility planned for the Boulder City, Nevada area. That expansion of Sempra's Copper Mountain facility, slated for completion in 2015, will add 250 megawatts to the complex's total capacity, planned for just under 460 megawatts total. The first phase of the project, online since 2010, produces 58 megawatts of power via PV modules. Copper Mountain 2 is still under construction."

Get the Story:
In Fighting Coal Pollution, Nevada Tribe Will Sell Solar Power to L.A. (KCET 10/10)

Join the Conversation