Plans to build the nation’s largest solar energy farm took a major step toward reality in late December with the release of the federal Bureau of Land Management’s final environmental impact statement for the proposed $1-billion Gemini Solar Project in Nevada.
Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, in collaboration with California-based Arevia Power, will build the 690-MW project on a 7,100-acre federally owned site 33 miles from Las Vegas. The EIS describes BLM’s “hybrid” preferred alternative as combining “traditional development methods” for ground-mounted photovoltaic panels on 2,500 acres, with remaining solar array areas mowed to leave vegetation and natural land contours in place.