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Nevada

Background

Nevada first passed a renewable portfolio standard in 2001. Since then the RPS has been updated several times, most recently in 2005, when the legislature increased the RPS goals to 20% by 2015 — with a 5% solar set-aside.

Three major solar projects are being developed as a result of the RPS. The first is a 3.1 MW PV installation at the Las Vegas waste-water treatment plant, one of the largest solar PV installations in the country. The second will be the first concentrating solar power plant to be built in the US since the 1980s: a 64 MW solar parabolic trough plant being developed by Solargenix Energy. And most recently, contracts have been signed for a 17MW PV installation at the Nellis Airforce Base. This would be the largest PV installation in the world, overshadowing the current leader, a 15 MW plant in Germany.

In addition, the RPS has also resulted in the state's two utilities providing limited rebates for solar systems to their customers. The Solar Generations Program has resulted in the approval of over 3,500 kW of solar PV systems on homes, businesses and public buildings in the state.

Policy Needs

There are two critical policy needs for Nevada. One is solar specific and the other is more generally related to the Nevada RPS.

On the solar side, the cap on the size of net metered systems needs to be increased. The current 30 kW cap effectively limits the size of PV systems that can be installed in the state (the large projects listed above are in a different category, since they never export power and therefore do not need to be net metered). Since solar system prices fall as the size of the system increases, this net metering cap prohibits the installation of larger, less expensive, systems and therefore increases the overall cost of installing solar in the state.

More generally, the RPS needs to be changed because it lacks penalty provisions — and as a result, solar has suffered. Although there has been an RPS in Nevada since 2001, the utilities have never been in full compliance with the solar requirements. Without enforceable penalty mechanisms in the state, it is unlikely that the utilities will make the required effort to ensure that the build or buy sufficient solar energy.

Next Steps

The net metering rules must be modified in the legislature. The 30kW Net Metering cap was instituted by legislation in AB236 (2005), and therefore can only be modified by a new law.

The problematic penalty provisions could be modified by the Commission. However, Vote Solar has not been successful in getting these changes over the last 18 months despite support from a wide variety of stakeholders. A legislative solution in the 2007 session may be required.