Nevada and other states’ increasing reliance on and plans to adopt more and more renewable energy have a slight problem: The sun eventually has to go down.
The intermittent nature of solar energy and other renewable resources isn’t exactly a big secret; but it nonetheless has come under renewed scrutiny in other states, namely California, amid the “unprecedented” strain on the Western U.S. electric grid earlier this month caused calls for voluntary power cutbacks in Nevada and several other Western states.
NV Energy CEO Doug Cannon said in an interview two weeks ago that the call to reduce power consumption was not tied to a greater reliance on renewable energy; it was instead a capacity problem, with not enough generation to meet expected demand.
But there’s a positive sign; combined under-construction and pending storage projects will see NV Energy surpass a 100 megawatt energy storage goal seven years ahead of schedule.
Still, as the state continues to move toward a greater reliance on renewable energy — including a gradual ramp up to a 50 percent Renewable Portfolio Standard by 2030 — renewable energy advocates say the state needs to take proactive steps now to avoid future resource adequacy issues — i.e. blackouts or brownouts.
“It’s a race, and if we don’t act now on starting all of these transmission projects that have been proposed, and we don’t continue to keep our foot on the gas when it comes to storage and renewable energy, we will fall behind,” Democratic Sen. Chris Brooks, an advocate for expanded renewable energy, said in an interview. “And we won’t be able to seize those opportunities and it will cost not only our state in lost opportunity, it will cost our state in more expensive power.”
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