The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Sept. 9 issued a record of decision approving NV Energy’s Greenlink West, a 470-mile transmission line that will connect Las Vegas with the northern part of Nevada and be capable of transmitting up to 4,000 MW of energy.

The project will consist of a 350-mile, 525-kV segment from Las Vegas to Yerington, along with two 345-kV lines running from Yerington into the Reno/Sparks area. Construction of the line is expected to begin in the first quarter of 2025 with an in-service date targeted for May 2027.

BLM also opened a comment period for a proposed draft resource management plan amendment and environmental impact statement for the Greenlink North project, a 210-mile east-west line designed to connect Greenlink West with NV Energy’s existing One Nevada Line running along the eastern part of the state.

NV Energy considers the Greenlink projects to be “vital” to tapping the state’s renewable resources and maintaining grid reliability in the face of growing load, an NV Energy executive said in the utility’s most recent integrated resource plan, filed with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada in May.

But the IRP also revealed the rising costs for the projects, now estimated at $4.239 billion, a 70.6% increase from initial estimates made in 2020. NV Energy attributed $124 million of the increase to the BLM’s requirement that the utility use an additional 160 miles of H-frame structures to mitigate risk to desert tortoise and sage grouse habitat. Other environmental mitigations added $30 million to project costs. (See NV Energy IRP Describes $1.76B Cost Jump for Greenlink Projects.)

Given Nevada’s central position between the resource-rich interior West and more populous West Coast, the Greenlink project also likely will play a key role in transferring energy among various regions participating in CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) and Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM). In May, NV Energy said it would choose to join EDAM over SPP’s Markets+, a major victory for CAISO in the competition between the two Western day-ahead markets. (See NV Energy Confirms Intent to Join CAISO’s EDAM.)

Massive Solar-plus-battery Project Approved

The BLM on Sept. 9 also approved Arevia Power’s $2.3 billion Libra Solar Project, which will be built across 5,778 acres of public land in Mineral County, Nevada. It will be one of the largest solar-plus-battery storage projects in the U.S., consisting of 700 MW of solar and 700 MW/2.8 GWh of energy storage capacity. NV Energy will be the off-taker for the project’s output.

“From building large scale transmission lines to solar power generating facilities, the Interior Department and our team at the Bureau of Land Management are leading the way in the development of reliable, clean energy across the West,” acting Deputy Secretary of the Interior Laura Daniel-Davis said during a Sept. 10 event in Las Vegas to announce the developments. “The infrastructure projects we are advancing today in Nevada are helping meet President Biden’s ambitious renewable energy goals while making communities more energy resilient and creating good-paying jobs in the clean energy economy.”