Nellis Solar Power Plant
Solar park in Nevada, US
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Through Watt and Solar panel
The peak power generation capacity of the plant is 15 MWAC. This means the ratio of average to peak output, or capacity factor, of this plant is around 22%.
Construction began on April 23, 2007, and operation of the first 5 MW began on October 12, 2007.
Economics
Under the terms of the Power Purchase Agreement, MMA Renewable Ventures, who own the panels, is leasing the land at no cost and Nellis is agreeing to buy the power for 20 years at about 2.2 cents/kW·h, instead of the 9 cents they are paying to Nevada Power, saving the Air Force $1 million each year. None of the $100 million cost came from the Air Force, but instead MMA "funds, owns and operates the solar energy system and sells the electricity generated to the energy customer through a predictable, long term contract."
The partners were able to build the plant, recover costs and produce electricity at a savings, because of the fairly complex financing structure arranged among MMA, its investors, Nevada Power, and Nellis — in addition to the value of solar tax incentives.
The plant was expected to produce 30 GWh per year but actually produced about 32 GWh the first year, 8% more than expected, saving the Air Force $1.2 million in the first year of operation.
Gaining the most resilience benefit from a solar installation requires adding a Battery energy storage system to retain power when the solar array is not producing and ideally a Microgrid to allow independent operation from the electric grid during a power outage. For this reason, Nellis announced a battery storage and microgrid project in 2022 to complement its solar array.
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Design
Nellis consists of 5,821 tilted axes, T20 single axis trackers made by Sunpower, and uses 72,416 solar panels, each 200 watts, and 54 Xantrex (Schneider Electric) GT 250 inverters, each rated 250 kW. The maximum output is therefore inverter limited to 13.5 megawatts (AC). At full output, the inverters are 96% efficient. Approximately 10% of the panels are mounted on north–south-oriented horizontal single-axis trackers. About one-third of the solar panels were made by Suntech Power, the lead supplier.
Renewable portfolio standard
In 1999, Nevada passed a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) as part of their 1997 Electric Restructuring Legislation (AB 366). It required any electric providers in the state to acquire actual renewable electric generation or purchase renewable energy credits so that each utility had 1 percent of total consumption in renewables. However, on June 8, 2001, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn signed SB 372, at the time the country's most aggressive renewable portfolio standard. The law requires that 15 percent of all electricity generated in Nevada be derived from new renewables by the year 2013.
The 2001, revision to the RPS keeps in place Nevada's commitment to expand solar energy resources by requiring that at least 5 percent of the renewable energy projects must generate electricity from solar energy.
In June 2005, the Nevada legislature passed a bill during a special legislative session that modified the Nevada RPS (Assembly Bill 03). The bill extends the deadline and raised the requirements of the RPS to 20 percent of sales by 2015.
Expansion
A separate plant called Nellis Solar PV II, located to the south of the base, generates another 15 megawatts of power. It began construction on March 24, 2015, and was completed in February 2016.
Presidential visit
President Barack Obama visited the facility and addressed an audience of more than 450 people on May 27, 2009.