Senator Reid calls for strengthening of renewable portfolio standards in Nevada
High voltage transmission lines, Primm Valley, Nevada (source: flickr/ Stephen Hill, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
27 Feb 2013
Senator Harry Reid praises renewable energy portfolio standards in Nevada, but calls for strengthening them in order to spurr renewable energy development in the state.
Last week Democratic Senate majority leader Harry Reid called on Nevada lawmakers to tighten the state’s renewable energy standards in a wide-ranging speech last week.
Speaking about the economy, the need for increased investment into education he also talked about renewable energy and its role in Nevada. Senator Reid has over years been a strong advocate for renewables and specifically for geothermal. His home state Nevada is the leading state when it comes to the number of geothermal projects under development in the U.S.
In his recent speech he praises the role of renewable energy portfolio standards for having helped to spurr green energy development by requiring that a minimum percentage of electricity come from renewable sources. These portfolio standards are set by state law.
The main state utility, NV Energy has been able to use a number of loopholes that allowed it to not having to build any MW itself. But from my understanding the model sees IPPs building plants and then selling electricity to NV Energy. … and to be fair not many projects in Nevada have been able to move from the exploration to the drilling phase and then on to construction in recent years due to financial constraints.
Source: Chron
