NV Energy Closure Leaves Only One Coal-Fired Power Plant In Service In Nevada
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Environmental advocates and members of an Indian tribe who live nearby hailed the closure Thursday of an embattled coal-fired NV Energy power plant 40 miles north of Las Vegas. Officials from the state's dominant electric utility marked the occasion by flipping a transformer switch to disconnect the fourth and final unit of the Reid Gardner Generating Station near Moapa from the regional power grid. The first three units shut down in late 2014.
The Moapa Band of Paiutes, which has long blamed the Reid-Gardner plant for environmental and health concerns, issued a statement applauding NV Energy "for standing by its commitment to retire this plant." State lawmakers called for the closure in 2013. RenewNV, a group of organizations advocating for use of renewable energy, called the shutdown a victory for clean air and healthy communities.
The closure leaves just one utility-owned coal-fired generating station in the state — a plant that NV Energy co-owns near Valmy in northern Nevada. It is due to close by 2025. Newmont Mining Corp. burns coal at its TS Power Plant in Battle Mountain to produce electricity for company operations. NV Energy also plans by the end of 2019 to give up its 11.3 percent stake in the coal-fired Navajo Generating Station east of Page, Arizona. That plant is operated by Phoenix-based SRP.
NV Energy has shifted production since 2005 toward renewable sources, including 19 geothermal, 14 solar, six hydroelectric, one wind and several biomass and methane plants in Nevada, said Starla Lacy, company environmental services executive. She said carbon emissions have been cut 44 percent over the same period.
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