CARSON CITY — The Public Utilities Commission decided Friday to ask the Nevada Legislature to determine what, if any, changes should be made to the state’s net metering policy, which allows homeowners who install rooftop solar to sell surplus electricity to the local utility company.
Energy
Roof-top solar advocates are raising concerns about recommended changes to Nevada’s net metering policies that they say could discourage consumers from pursuing the alternative energy opportunities.
Landing the Tesla Gigafactory was a huge economic victory for Nevada by most accounts, but the state needs to do much more at the end point of production to promote electrical vehicle use, according to a report by a nonprofit group promoting energy efficiency.
Two northern Nevada fire chiefs have asked the Public Utilities Commission to investigate the safety of NV Energy’s residential “smart” meters, saying they believe the meters are associated with a string of recent fires.
The National Clean Energy Summit has been held in Las Vegas every year since Sen. Harry Reid launched it in 2008, but Northern Nevada stole much of the limelight at this year’s event with the $5 billion story of the day: Tesla’s decision to place its battery Gigafactory in the same Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center a biofuel plant will be built.
U.S. motorists will encounter the cheapest Labor Day weekend for driving in four years, but prices in Las Vegas continue to run about 25 cents per gallon more than the national average.
State utility regulators have approved a request by NV Energy to participate in a regional Energy Imbalance Market to take advantage of low-cost energy resources.
A deal negotiated last week by regulators and consumer advocates with NV Energy to avoid a rate increase in Southern Nevada power rates next year remains a work in progress.
Southern Nevada electricity consumers will not see a rate hike next year, marking the first time in more than three decades that ratepayers have managed to duck an NV Energy-proposed rate increase.
Rooftop solar advocates argued against any move to create a separate and potentially higher rate class for customers who use the systems to lower their power bills at a workshop Wednesday before the Nevada Public Utilities Commission.
Workers at a solar plant in the Mojave Desert have a name for birds that fly through the plant’s concentrated sun rays — “streamers,” for the smoke plume that comes from birds that ignite in midair.
SolarCity has opened a new 18,000- square-foot facility in Henderson.
EL CENTRO, Calif. — The customer-owned electric utility serving Southern California’s Imperial Valley will pay a $12 million civil penalty in a vast power outage three years ago.
RENO — Geothermal energy was called a “slow, steady reliable resource” on Tuesday by an official participating the Geothermal Energy Association’s annual national summit at the Grand Sierra Resort.
A legislative committee Friday agreed to draft a bill for the 2015 session to look at energy-savings opportunities for utility customers, but the panel declined to move forward with the specific recommendations of a public policy group.