What good are clean-energy cars if the batteries that power them catch fire? That’s the problem a UNLV research team will try to unravel under a three-year, $2.5 million grant that Energy Secretary Steven Chu announced Wednesday.
Energy
After a year of hearings, the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada settled Tuesday on a smart-meter opt-out plan, but not without a late twist that could upend the agency’s decision. The commission voted to approve a one-time fee of $98.75 and a monthly charge of around $9 for local ratepayers who choose to leave NV Energy’s NV Energize smart-meter initiative.
The sun is shining more brightly on the Moapa River Indian Reservation north of Las Vegas. Los Angeles City Council members approved a $1.6 billion, 25-year pact Tuesday to purchase solar power from a company that will build nearly 1 million photovoltaic panels on tribal land.
A massive, slightly radioactive piece of steam generator dismantled from a nuclear power plant in Southern California is scheduled to roll very deliberately across rural Nevada next week on its way to a dump in Utah.
Federal officials on Friday approved a plan that sets aside 285,000 acres of public land for the development of large-scale solar power plants, cementing a new government approach to renewable energy development in the West, including Nevada, after years of delays and false starts.
What’s fair? That question hung over hearings into whether NV Energy can charge special rates to those who opt out of its smart-meter program. A consultant for the state Bureau of Consumer Protection said $35 million a year in operating costs NV Energy will save with smart meters could more than cover opt-out costs.
A coal-burning power plant 50 miles north of Las Vegas has been granted new life by federal regulators one week after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid declared it a “dirty relic” that should be shut down.
If oil and gas companies receive federal subsidies, so should renewable energy projects, said wind, geothermal and solar power supporters at Tuesday’s fifth-annual National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas.