Site of Amargosa Solar Energy Zone in Nye County. (Photo: Jeniffer Solis/Nevada Current)
Federal land managers will determine whether one of the largest potential power-producing solar plants in the world can be built just up the road from a wildlife refuge home to a trove of species found nowhere else on the planet.
Two months ago, renewable energy developer NextEra Energy Resources submitted plans to construct a massive 10,000 acre solar project about 16 miles north of the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, a wetland habitat with the highest concentration of unique species in the U.S.
Now the Bureau of Land Management has launched a last minute review of the proposed Rock Valley Solar Project in the Amargosa Valley in Nye County, which would produce and store enough renewable energy to power about 360,000 homes in Nevada and California.
The review will determine if the solar project can advance into the environmental review phase under the National Environmental Policy Act. Federal officials said they expect to come to a decision in Spring 2025.
In recent years, the federal government has auctioned millions of acres of public land in Nevada for solar development and attracted record bids. The tract of land where the proposed Rock Valley Solar Project would sit was auctioned to NextEra Energy last year under a conditional lease for a bid of $21 million.
Despite sitting outside a “solar energy zone” — an area where solar development is prioritized by the federal government — the project was classified as a “high priority” project under the BLM’s 2012 Western Solar Plan, giving it priority in the review process.
The project’s high priority designation has been a blow to Native American tribes and conservation groups that oppose industrial development in the ecologically fragile Amargosa River watershed, a vast groundwater basin that supplies water to springs in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
Representatives for the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe, who consider the area part of their ancestral homelands, sent a letter to the Bureau of Land Management earlier this month urging the government to reject the project application or re-assign the project to a low priority status.
In the November letter, the tribe said the project’s location and water usage could threaten endemic species entirely dependent on groundwater-fed springs in the refuge. The refuge is home to a dozen species listed under the Endangered Species Act, including the endangered Ash Meadows pupfish and the Devil’s Hole pupfish.
“The Timbisha Shoshone people have cared for these lands since time immemorial, and we depend on them for our cultural, spiritual, and ecological survival. We urge the BLM to recognize the unique importance of this area and to take the necessary steps to ensure its protection,” wrote Mandi Campbell, the tribal historic preservation officer for the Timbisha Shoshone Tribe.
While power generating solar plants do not require water to operate, they do require water during construction to control dust emissions over large acreages.
During a November meeting, federal officials said the project would require about 480 acre-feet of water during construction. NextEra Energy Resources has already obtained a water lease in the water-strapped basin, allowing the firm to truck water to the site from five miles away.
Solar projects proposed outside of a designated solar energy zone do have more stringent conservation requirements than those in a solar energy zone under the 2012 Western Solar Plan.
Federal land managers have acknowledged the potential impacts large-scale solar development could have on groundwater in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge in the past.
Six other renewable energy proposals in the Amargosa River watershed have all received “low priority” status for permitting approval under the Biden administration, due to their potential impacts on the Amargosa River watershed and the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.
The Amargosa East Solar Project, proposed by US Solar Assets directly across the road from the Rock Valley Solar Project, was categorized as low priority last year because according to the BLM’s rationale, “groundwater pumping may have adverse effects on Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge.”
However, the Amargosa East Solar Project and other projects listed as low priority in the area were not on competitive parcels auctioned by the BLM like the Rock Valley Solar Project.
During the November meeting for the proposed Rock Valley Energy Project, Amargosa Valley residents also told BLM staff that a recent spike in Valley fever has led to concerns over soil disturbance during the construction process. Valley fever is a lung infection caused by dislodged fungus that grows in the soil.
The sudden shift in priority status for the Rock Valley Solar Project despite its controversial location has left environmental groups, locals, and tribes caught off guard, said Mason Voehl, the executive director of the Amargosa Conservancy.
“It’s located in the same kind of proximity as these other applications that have received low priority status. So why is this one different? We expect continuity and consistency. For them to assign this one high and everything else low, we want to know why,” Voehl said.
A coalition of conservation groups, including the Amargosa Conservancy, sent a letter to the BLM this month urging the government to reject the Rock Valley Energy Project — or reassign it as a low-priority project — due to its potential impacts on sensitive species and the unique ecosystems in the surrounding area.
Several conservation groups and local residents have supported solar development in the “Amargosa Solar Energy Zone” northwest of the Big Dune near the I-95. Part of the zone was auctioned to NV Energy for $81.85 million last year, but the energy monopoly has yet to submit plans for any solar project on the land.
“The BLM should still prioritize developing, building out the solar energy zones first. We have one here in the Amargosa, and that one is still very publicly supported by Amargosa Valley,” Voehl said. “So why aren’t we prioritizing applications in that area first?”
But the project’s ultimate fate may depend on President-elect Donald Trump’s intention to carry out the solar transition, an outcome that has concerned environmental groups.
A draft for a new updated Western Solar Plan was released in August which would exclude large swaths of land in the Amargosa Valley from solar development. While it’s not everything conservation groups wanted, “it was still a step in the right direction,” Voehl said.
The future of that updated plan is now as uncertain as the litany of solar projects proposed in the Amargosa Valley under the Biden administration.
“The other big question is what happens to the Western Solar Plan under Trump? Will it be implemented? Will it be completely undone? No one seems to know,” Voehl said.