The Gemini Solar project was so close to getting fully approved for construction — but the U.S. Bureau of Land Management missed the date to decide the project’s Section 106 permit, which was supposed to be given out in March. Now, Gemini, anticipated to be the largest solar installation in the country upon completion, waits in limbo.
Just as every proposed solar project must go through an environmental impact study, the Section 106 permit is one that evaluates a project’s historic impact. The land proposed for the 690 MW proposed giant is on the Moapa River Indian Reservation, 33 miles northeast of Las Vegas. The concern is over the project’s visual impact on an historic railroad camp, as well as the Old Spanish National Historic Trail.
The Old Spanish National Historic Trail was used by settlers in the 1830s to 1860s to bring goods from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to Los Angeles, California. Along the way, these settlers would also trade with the local Native American groups that they encountered. The trail is lauded for making Santa Fe the hub of the overland continental trade between Mexico and United States, and for the story of two toddlers traversing the trail while packed into mule saddlebags.
In response to the delay, BLM has shared that the organization can no longer give a timeframe for a decision, but a spokesperson told Reuters that the bureau is working “expeditiously” to finish the work.
Developer Arevia Power shared with Reuters that the project’s permit decision may have been pushed back as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, but gave no concrete reasoning.
The project is still anticipated to be completed in 2023, and will feature a mammoth 380 MW/1,520 MWh lithium-ion battery, one of the largest known to pv magazine. The project is set to cost $1 billion to construct and will employ nearly 2,400 people at peak construction.
This content is protected by copyright and may not be reused. If you want to cooperate with us and would like to reuse some of our content, please contact: editors@pv-magazine.com.
By submitting this form you agree to pv magazine using your data for the purposes of publishing your comment.
Your personal data will only be disclosed or otherwise transmitted to third parties for the purposes of spam filtering or if this is necessary for technical maintenance of the website. Any other transfer to third parties will not take place unless this is justified on the basis of applicable data protection regulations or if pv magazine is legally obliged to do so.
You may revoke this consent at any time with effect for the future, in which case your personal data will be deleted immediately. Otherwise, your data will be deleted if pv magazine has processed your request or the purpose of data storage is fulfilled.
Further information on data privacy can be found in our Data Protection Policy.