By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
It was a rough crowd that showed up at both Town Advisory Board meetings last week to voice opposition to the Battle Born Solar Project, a mammoth facility being proposed for the top of the Mormon Mesa just east of Logandale and Overton.
Representatives of California-based solar power developer Arevia Power attended the Moapa Town Board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 27 where about 60 people were in the audience. They came again the following night to the Moapa Valley Town Board meeting in Overton where more than 200 people were in attendance.
In Overton, the front doors of the Community Center had to be propped open and chairs set up outside the building to allow the crowd to be appropriately social distanced.
After a brief presentation at both meetings, the time was opened to public comment. For about an hour at each meeting, local residents got up one by one to give input and ask questions. All of those commenting voiced strong opposition to the project.
Seeking input
During the presentations, Arevia Power managing partner Ricardo Graf pointed out that the project was still in its very early stages.
“This is really the first conversation that we are having with the community on the project,” Graf said. “There will be other opportunities for you to have comments on the project. Today is really just an initial presentation to get you familiar with the project, to begin a dialog and to get your input.”
Graf emphasized that the company was still well in advance of the detailed public process required by the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). Rather the company was coming forward on its own to engage with the public early.
“This is a voluntary meeting, it is not required by the process,” Graf said. “We are here because we want your feedback. We welcome that. And we hope that you will see that feedback incorporated into the alternatives that are finally presented by the BLM during the public process.”
Project details
According to Graf’s presentation, the project would span 9,200 acres of a total 24,000 acre study area on the lower Mormon Mesa allotment. At its southern tip, the proposed site would straddle the existing Mormon Mesa Road coming up from Perkins Field Airport. Its northern boundary would stretch to a point on the mesa roughly east of the Bowman Reservoir.
The project is currently projecting to occupy approximately 7,400 acres of that area with photovoltaic panels which would stand about 10-12 feet high. At that height, none of the panels would be visible from down in the Moapa Valley, Graf said.
The facility is projected to produce 850 megawatts of renewable energy, Graf said. It would also integrate an 850 megawatt battery component using lithium ion battery technology.
The project would include a 15-mile transmission line, adjacent to existing power lines, which would tie in to the regional power grid at Reid Gardner substation.
It was expected that the power from the project would be purchased by NV Energy and presumably used in the state of Nevada, Graf said.
The project is set to begin the NEPA process very soon, Graf added. If all goes as expected by the company, construction would begin toward the end of 2022, he said.
Project benefits
Battle Born Solar is expected to provide both direct and indirect economic benefits to the region. Graf cited that it would generate $285 billion in labor income and have a $530 million GDP effect in the state. Furthermore, it would bring significant property, sales and use tax revenues for local governments, Graf said.
During the construction phase, the project would create 1,125 direct high wage jobs, Graf said. After construction, the ongoing plant operations would employ 25-30 people, he said.
Graf also touted the environmental benefits that renewable energy from the plant would bring to the state.
“We are talking about 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide displaced annually because of a project of this scale,” Graf said. “So it does things that most coal and gas plants used to do, but we are doing it with renewable energy.”
In order to minimize traffic impacts to the community, the primary access to the facility would come from Interstate 15, over a new road that would be constructed from the Carp Elgin exit.
Environmental mitigation
Graf said that the project had already studied and considered many of the environmental concerns with the project and incorporated them into the planning.
The majority of the project would use a “mowing and crushing” methodology. Instead of scraping the entire site clean of all vegetation, the plants would be mowed to a target of no lower than 18-24 inches.
In addition, only rubber tires would be used in the area to minimize the impact on the soils.
“The idea is to maintain as much of the natural vegetation as possible,” Graf said.
The project would avoid the area of the known Spanish Trail route. The northern end of the project would be about 2.5 miles south of the Spanish Trail, Graf said.
The company’s studies have shown a very low density of desert tortoise on the site. But during construction, the existing tortoises would be relocated. Then after construction is complete, they would be introduced to the site. Open slats at the bottom of the security fencing would allow the tortoise and other wildlife to pass on and off of the site and to co-exist with the solar field.
Other environmental impacts will be discovered and addressed during the NEPA process, Graf said.
Maintaining access
When the time was turned over for public comment, Graf was peppered with questions and concerns from local residents in attendance.
Chief among these were concerns about the loss of traditional access to the mesa-top land and across to the public lands beyond it. Residents expressed fear that traditional practices of riding OHVs, riding horses and hiking through the area would be infringed by the project.
But Graf said there was no intention to cut off any existing roadways through the site.
“The way these drawings are made it can easily be misconstrued that we are just going to put one big fence around the boundaries cutting everything off and that is not the case,” Graf said. “These installations are very modular. We can piece them together however you like to preserve any kind of recreational trails or historical routes. So the roads can all remain in tact.”
But that was not enough for local residents who said that the experience of the desert landscape would be altered forever.
“I can appreciate that this is modular, and the panels will only stand 10-12 feet high,” said local resident Jill Williams who operates an OHV rental and touring shop in Overton. “But I can assure you that there is not a person on the planet who wants to erase our beauty up there and look at some solar panels instead. This is a bad idea!”
Economic impacts
Moapa Valley Chamber of Commerce President Vanette Christensen said that the project would stifle tourism business for the community. She talked about the impacts that the closure of Overton Beach has had on the community since that area was closed in 2008. In the years since then, the community has worked to make the area a renowned destination for riding OHVs, she said.
“All of these things that we have worked so hard on to try and build back up the businesses and the small-town economy are going to be impacted by this,” Christensen said.
Sammy Vassilev, owner of Skydive Fyrosity at Perkins Field Airport, backed up this idea saying that Battle Born Solar would directly affect his business. He said that he has a contract with the U.S. military to do special training with paratroopers.
“It so happens that this same location is a designated certified landing area for those paratroopers,” Vassilev said. “So if this project is built where it is proposed, it will affect our current long-term contracts with the government as well as any future opportunities that might come around.”
Logandale resident Blake Monk said that the project would shut down major off-road racing events that regularly go on in that area. Monk, who is a leader in the Motorcycle Racing Association of Nevada (MRAN), said that his annual race has dirt bikes screaming through that area at high speeds every year. The event generates around $45,000 per year in revenues, he said.
“I want to know, are you guys going to give us access through there?” Monk said. “We go fast. Are you going to give us that 100 mph speed through there so we can keep doing what we have always done?”
What about water?
Another recurring concern was surrounding how much water the project would require and where that water would come from.
Graf said that the water needs of the facility would be minimal. The company could truck in the water needed for the project from sources in North Las Vegas, he said.
The majority of water needed would be for dust control during construction of the facility, he said. During construction the project would require anywhere from 600-800 acre feet per year as a general estimate.
But after construction, the need would be minimal for ongoing operations. The solar panels very seldomly ever need to be washed down, he said.
“We do an analysis regularly to figure out how much production we are actually getting for the system,” Graf said. “Whatever dust film gets on the panels, the amount of reduction in power is minimal. So it usually doesn’t really make sense economically to send a crew out to wash panels.”
Referring to existing solar facilities on Moapa River Indian Reservation as well as those at Apex, Graf said that almost no water is used for washing solar panels at those facilities. The only water use there has been for employees in the operations building of the plants, he said.
The spiritual impacts
Other commenters said that the project would deprive local residents of important cultural heritage sites in the area. Overton resident Joan Dey pointed out that the project sat right on top of the old Huntsman Trail which was the route that Mormon pioneers took across the Mesa to settle the Muddy River valley.
Graf said that cultural resources like this, and others, would have to be considered during the NEPA process and mitigations would need to be found.
“We are in the beginning of the process and there is a lot of study still to be done on the site,” Graf said. “The BLM is really the one that takes the lead on interpreting all the data and what it means and how it will affect project implementation. But I can say that if there are voluntary things that we can do to help preserve things like that, we will certainly work with you on them.”
But Logandale resident Wendy Mulcock said that, for her, the issue went way beyond a mere mitigation of cultural resources. Rather, it had a more spiritual component, she said.
Mulcock related that her great, great, great grandfather had brought his family across that trail in the 1800s to settle in the Muddy Valley. “To me, you are erasing my family history when you put this up there,” Mulcock said. “I just don’t think you have an answer for that.”
“It is interesting that in Spanish, the word mesa means ‘table’,” Mulcock added. “I want you to know, as powerfully as I can say this, that what you want to serve on our table is unacceptable.”
Heat island effects?
Moapa Valley resident Lisa Childs expressed concern aboutthe possibility of a solar project of this size affecting the climate around the community. She said she had done extensive research on the internet and was concerned to find no reliable studies completed about the ambient heat effect of such large solar installations. But she did read statements that heat island effects of such facilities could raise ambient temperature from 5-20 degrees.
Graf responded that ambient heat increases do occur on other types of solar facilities, such as the ones using solar mirrors to focus the sun’s heat on a central tower. But on a photovoltaic panel array such as is planned for Battle Born Solar, no such heat island develops. Rather the panels are designed to absorb, not reflect, the heat, he said.
“The battery installations might put off a little bit of heat,” Graf said. “But we employ cooling systems to those components. And that heat would only be felt in close proximity to those installations. It certainly wouldn’t extend to outside of the facility boundaries and have a regional effect.”
Why not elsewhere?
The final recurring question which kept being raised was: Why here? Why not somewhere else?
“Normally solar farms of this size are brought to remote areas, or to contaminated areas of the desert where they are not impacting anybody,” Childs said. “How come this is being proposed in the middle of our community where it has so much local impact on people? There are so many other places out there better suited for this.”
Graf responded that a project of this scale needs plenty of open land to achieve enough “critical mass.” It also needs to be in close proximity to enough transmission infrastructure to inject a large amount of power into the regional grid.
“By virtue of its location in proximity to the Reid Gardner substation itself, where there is that infrastructure in place, that is why this is an ideal site for a project like this,” Graf said.
Moapa resident Blake Stratton suggested that, since the project would be supplying NV Energy with power, perhaps it would be better to just site it on, and adjacent to, the Reid Gardner site.
“The Reid Gardner site is right there,” Stratton said. “It has just been decommissioned and we have lost 350 good paying jobs because of it. It is all trash land on that side of the freeway and it is right next to the substation, right? I mean, you would take it from 22 miles to 200 yards of transmission and you could connect right into that substation. Why does it have to be in our backyard? Why don’t you do it right over there? Nobody would even care.”
Impasse
Logandale resident Charlie Melvin said that the meetings had made it clear that no one in the community was in favor of the project. “So my question is: What now? What next?” she asked.
Graf responded that they planned to have multiple discussions and “sit-downs” with the community to determine where the key issues of concern are and how to resolve them.
“We will implement those concerns into the design and we will try to find a solution together,” Graf said.
“That is a really good political answer,” Melvin said. “But the fact of the matter is, not one person in this room, or in this town, wants this at all. So when you are coming here and saying we want you to have a seat at the table, it doesn’t apply to us because we don’t want to even have the conversation further after tonight. No one here is interested in entertaining it for even one more second.”
