Air Force base in Nevada goes solar with 14-megawatt array

Correction: Spokespeople from SunPower and MMA Renewables said the size of the installation at Nellis Air Force base has been revised to 14.2 megawatts, not 15 megawatts as the Air Force and those companies originally said.

Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, the land of lots of sun and plenty of land, will be home to a 70,000 solar-panel installation which, at 14 megawatts, will be the largest in North America.

The U.S. Air Force on Tuesday said Nellis and SunPower have finished the first phase of the project, which will save the base $1 million a year and roughly $83,000 a month, when fully commissioned.

Nellis Air Force Base solar panels

(Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Airman 1st Class Nadine Y. Barclay)

The project, started in July of this year, will bring the final two-thirds of the panels online in the next two months.

The SunPower solar panels will be installed on 140 acres of Nellis Air Force base land and use trackers that move the mounted panels to follow the sun during the course of the day. The trackers improve output by 30 percent.

A different view of Nellis' SunPower panels

(Credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Senior Airman Larry E. Reid Jr.)

The 15-megawatt installation will be one of the biggest solar farms in the world. The Bavaria Solar Park in Germany is a 10-megawatt plant, and the Serpa Power Plant in Portugal is 11 megawatts.

But those solar parks act as power plants, whereas the Nellis installation will power only the base, which employs between 12,000 and 14,000 people, according to a representative. By comparison, Hewlett-Packard installed a relatively large corporate solar array in its San Diego facility last month that can generate 1 megawatt of electricity.

Under the contract, the base will pay a less expensive rate for electricity over the life of the panels, which typically have a 25-year warranty.

Update: The deal is financed by MMA Renewables, which includes equity investments from Citi and Allstate and debt provided by John Hancock Financial Services.

It is a purchase power agreement, or PPA, where Nellis will purchase electricity that the panels generate at fixed rates. The panels themselves are owned by the financiers.

In a release from April of this year, Nellis said that the installation will supply over 25 percent of the power used at the base.

[thriftyT]

People should take notice of news like this, because it puts into perspective why solar power will NEVER amount to anything more than a supplemental source of electrical power generation.<br /><br />This 140 acre solar farm only outputs enough power for ~10,000 households, or as the article states, enough power for 25% of one Air Force Base's electricity consumption.<br /><br />Not bad, but not great either. Keep in mind that this only works in Nevada. And only in the daytime.<br /><br />People need to get real about their expectations for solar power. No matter how cheap it gets, there is a very finite amount of solar power available and that amount doesn't come close to satisfying our voracious energy consumption.<br /><br />Solar power will be one part of future energy supplies, to be sure, but more attention should be paid to less sexy, but equally important advances in energy EFFICIENCY.<br /><br />e.g. A new coal plant that is 10% more efficient at converting coal to electricity is every bit as impressive as a solar farm.<br /><br />Also, any decrease in energy consumption will be at least as important as finding new energy sources. One of the most hopeful advances will be the widespread use of CFL and LED lighting in conventional (i.e. household and businesses) applications.

[bob1xxxx]

Honestly I dont think there will be one magic bullet energy solution for the next ten to fifteen years. I think for near future a mix of conventional fuel power plants (ie oil, coal and nuclear) and in many areas taking advantage of solar, wind and possible tidal engery supplies. Past of single fuel source for electric power is in the past , but currently alternative are not ready to take over yet, but as the tech improves (cheaper) more and more power will be produced, Unfortunately too many people are looking for unreasonable all or nothing solutions (ie tree huggers want to go back to pre industrial world, coal and oil companies want the un regulated smog/soot filled world 1940/50's back) neither wet dream will fly with todays consumers. The near future electrical production is going to come from using the best tech both conventiona fuelsl and alternative power generation sources, as time goes by alternative power generation will take on a great percentages of the load , and also using new tech like led/cfl lighting, more engery efficient appliances, heating and cooling unit, water heaters, etc... Will all help. The solution to future electrical power generation is multi faceted with NO ONE magic bullet or solution,

[steveg19]

Three comments<br />1) 140 acres site producing 15 megawatts of electricity.<br />1 acre =4047metres; Energy from sun on 1 square metre = 1.3 kwat<br />So total energy falling in 140 acres=140*4047*1300 watts=736megawatts<br />So efficiency of this power station =15/736*100 percent=2%<br />So I expect to see lots more power to come from this area<br />2) I cannot find the area of the nevada desert but from the maps I believe it to be at leastb100km by 100 km or 10000sq km or 10billion square metres . So that equals 10 *1300 giga watts= 13 terrawatts of sunligh energy.<br />Thus is all the desert were used at an efficiency of 10% 1.3 terrawatts could be generated <br />Electricity consumpution for the year in the USA is less than 4 pettawatt hours per year or 4/365X12pettawatts per hour= 9.13Terrawatts per hour assumming the power is generated over 12 hours not 24 <br />This desert on its own could generate a substantial proprortion of the energy required by the USA. (This by illustration, Solar power will be a very useful source of energy in the future but I would not try to take all the power one desert could supply for other reasons) <br />3) Electricity is not used efficiently; we use incandecent lighting; we do not insulate; we light &#38; heat areas that do not need to be we are generally wasteful. It should without a great investment be possible to reduce our energy usage without affecting our quality of life.<br />So I think Solar has great future; It is non polluting, Available for as long as the sun exists and has the potential by itself to provide all our energy needs.

[transformity]

steveg19, you have confused the 'Solar Constant' with the actual amount of energy that reaches the surface of earth. Solar constant is 1376 W/m2 which on a surface perpendicular to solar rays at top of atmosphere. Actual amount that reaches Earth surface is about 240 W/m2...should be a little more in desert of Nevada.

[JosephRogers]

I think the real future of Solar energy is not something that is going to be provided for us as a nation or as a world but needs to be something we do for ourselves. While I do believe that the United States Government should put more concentration on solar power and energy than on less safe sources of energy like nuclear energy which creates a bi-product that is not only hazardous but has a half life of thousands of years and will never go away. I think that we as intelligent and educated americans should start putting more solar panels on our own homes and we should switch to LED light to try and attempt to lower our amount of wasteful energy consumption. If every person in America this year who could afford it put solar panels on their own home and every knew building built had to come with mandatory installation of solar panels we could save so much energy it would be unreal. With all of the energy we saved we could then use the rest of the energy for more productive things as water purification in third world countries. We must approach this problem with a grass roots attempt to try and save our planet instead of waiting around and waiting for someone else to do it. As a god fearing christian I'm always reminded of the two sins we have out there. We can either sin by what we do or we can sin by the good we don't do. No longer should good men with the financial means to help stand back and watch and blame governments and others when there is something they can do.