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McCarthy Building Companies recently reached its peak workforce on the 1,387-acre Arrow Canyon Solar Project. This 274-megawatt DC (MW) solar project includes a 91 MW-5hr battery storage project and is expected to complete in December 2022. The site is located in Moapa Band of Paiute Indians Reservation, 20 miles northeast of Las Vegas. More than 200 construction team members are on the job site and nearly 25% of the workforce are tribal members.
When fully operational in December 2022, Arrow Canyon will generate enough clean energy to meet the consumption of up to 76,000 average Nevada homes. This is equivalent to avoiding more than 632,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually.
The project is also specially designed to generate clean energy while minimizing impacts to wildlife, habitat, and other environmental resources of the Moapa tribal lands. With the support of its partners at Bombard Electric, Las Vegas Paving, Soil-Tech, CMC Rebar and JBM Construction, and in tandem with LiUNA and IBEW unions, the project is providing workforce training and skills development for individuals of all levels of experience and expose them to long-term career opportunities in the rapidly growing solar industry.
Nevada Clean Energy Commitment
A recently Status of Energy Report released by the Governor's Office of Energy shows that 20% of power in Nevada is currently generated by renewable resources.
The state is on track to meet is Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). The RPS was first adopted by the Nevada Legislature in 1997 under NRS 704.7801. It established the percentage of electricity sold to Nevada retail customers by providers of electric service that must come from renewable sources. In 2019, SB 358 increased the RPS to 50% by 2030.
According to the State of the State address by Governor Sisolak, “Last year alone, we launched five new solar plants - increasing our state’s solar capacity by 35%, and now Nevada is ranked #1 for solar in the country. We’re implementing a plan to ensure that 50% of Nevada’s energy comes from clean energy by 2030, which net-zero greenhouse gasses by 2050."
The Arrow Canyon Solar Project is in partnership with EDF Renewables, an independent power producer and service provider with over 35 years of experience in renewable energy. In 2019, EDF Renewables North America signed a power purchase agreement with NV Energy for this project.
“McCarthy is proud to be assisting EDF Renewables and the Moapa Paiutes in expanding solar infrastructure and energy storage in Southern Nevada while providing jobs, training, and workforce development for hundreds of local individuals within the area,” said McCarthy Renewable Energy & Storage project director Chris Fletcher. “We have a long history delivering renewable energy projects within Nevada and have a fantastic growing relationship with the Tribe. It is extremely rewarding to help develop and train the future workforce in the fast-growing solar energy field within the communities we live and serve.”
Source: McCarthy, EDF, and Nevada Governor's Office of Energy
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