Mostly clear; a dry evening for trick-or-treaters with evening temps falling through the 50s; we’ll land in the mid to upper 30s by morning. .
Mostly clear; a dry evening for trick-or-treaters with evening temps falling through the 50s; we’ll land in the mid to upper 30s by morning.
Updated: October 30, 2026 @ 6:37 pm
(The Center Square) – A solar panel project is one step closer to construction in rural Nevada. However, opponents still question how it would affect the area.
The Nye County Commission approved, by a 4-1 vote, a special use permit and preliminary development plan for the Copper Rays Solar Project developers.
The county commission will meet on Wednesday to consider the project’s development agreement.
But the project still needs the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval before construction can start. That’s because Copper Rays Project would use 4,414 acres of federal land in Nye County near the California border, which is home to 60,000 residents. The county is in the south-central part of Nevada and is home to the city of Pahrump.
The project would generate 700 megawatts of solar power and include a battery storage system that can deliver up to the same amount of power for four hours, according to the Bureau of Land Management.
According to developer Leeward Renewable Energy, the solar project is expected to generate up to $94 million in tax revenue over its lifespan and up to $1 million annually in shared lease revenue.
The developer said its project could create between 300 and 400 construction jobs.
The Center Square reached out to Leeward Renewable Energy about the project, but it did not respond before publication time.
Nye County Commissioner Ian Bayne said the solar panel company is trying to get the project approved by the end of the year.
Bayne, the only commissioner to vote against the solar project, said he worries about how “compatible” the project is with Nye County. He added he is concerned about how the project will affect the county’s water and energy resources.
“We really don’t know the long-term impact of these massive solar projects. It’s a brand new technology,” Bayne said.
He noted Nye County doesn’t have “enough resources to correct an error” the solar project could make.
The Center Square reached out to the other Nye County commissioners, but they did not respond before publication time.
Kevin Emmerich, cofounder of the conservation nonprofit Basin and Range Watch, said his organization opposes the project.
Emmerich said solar energy projects require large tracts of land and are the “equivalent of a large-scale fossil fuel project.”
Building the solar project will require the developer to use “heavy construction equipment,” which will harm desert vegetation, wildlife habitat and the natural surface of rocks in the area, he said.
Emmerich, who lives in Nye County, told The Center Square that when the heavy construction equipment drives over the natural surface of rocks, it will create “fugitive dust,” which will impact the area’s air quality.
The solar project would also impact the desert tortoise population in Nye County, Emmerich said.
He noted the worksite contains many of these animals. He estimated the worksite has between 600 and 700 juvenile desert tortoises, which he said construction would most likely kill.
Emmerich explained the project threatens the desert tortoise population in Nye County.
He said other locations in Nevada could have been considered for the solar panel project, such as abandoned strip mines or Las Vegas for its big parking lots, warehouses and rooftop access.
The federal government is targeting Pahrump Valley, which is in Nevada and California, for a “solar energy zone,” Emmerich said, noting seven projects are being considered for the area. Emmerich said an estimated 18,000 acres of Nevada habitat would “be compromised by these projects.”
According to Bayne, residents have questioned whether the solar panels are being installed in anticipation of a data center. Nye County previously banned data centers in August.
Developers looking to build a data center sued the county over the ban.
Bayne told The Center Square that data center proponents haven’t given up on building a data center in the county.
”All of a sudden, we have these massive large-scale solar projects popping up around the same time as a massive large-scale data center was proposed. But was there a tie-in? I do believe that’s true,” he said.
Bayne said he expected that, by “this time next year,” there would be a “big discussion from potential data center billionaires in Pahrump who want to find out our concerns so they can address them so that there won’t be any more concerns.”
“Solar will want to be right there on the ground if that happens,” he noted.
Bayne said he is concerned that the solar company says it will give the community money but doesn’t follow through because of financial issues. He noted solar companies go “bankrupt all the time.”
He added that he doesn’t trust what developers say, citing data center developers suing the county after it banned them.
“When developers stop suing [the county], I’ll start to rebuild trust with developers,” he noted.
In Nye County, he explained, an “underlying struggle” exists between elected officials who want to keep the county rural and others who want to make it more urban.
Bayne said he is trying to preserve the current state of rural Nye County.
Originally published on thecentersquare.com, part of the BLOX Digital Content Exchange.
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