Nevada backs contested pumped hydro project
Nevada backs contested pumped hydro project
Water remains a concern as the project moves forward.
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From the perspective of electric utilities and grid managers, pumped hydro projects are seen as advantageous. They can provide storage needed to balance a grid that has more and more intermitent resources like solar and wind. Using reservoirs at different elevation, they can store energy when it is in excess and release it when there is not enough available (see the chart below). In that way, the projects act like a big battery.
But as the name suggests: They need water to work. And they are often proposed in places where there are more rights to use water than there is water to go around.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently denied permits for two proposed pumped storage projects on the Navajo Nation that would have used large amounts of water. The commission ruled that it would no longer move projects forward without a Tribe’s consent, as InsideClimateNews’ Noel Lyn Smith and Wyatt Myskow reported.
There was a plan to build pumped storage near the Hoover Dam. In 2020, a pumped storage project was proposed for Pyramid Lake (without tribal consent), and another at Walker Lake. Both the Truckee River and Walker River, which flow into the lakes, have been the subject of more than a century of litigation. There was even a plan to build one in Las Vegas near the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
None of those projects gained much traction. But there is one project that’s being closely watched, and it’s on the east side of Nevada, in White Pine County. Myskow wrote an excellent and in-depth piece about it in November. You should absolutely read the entire story, which is well-reported throughout. But here’s a key excerpt:
“R Plus Hydro thought White Pine County in Nevada was an ideal location for one such project, with access to nearby transmission lines, federal lands to build on and water to draw from.
However, the project, one of the furthest along in the FERC permitting approval process approval process, is hitting roadblocks with locals ranging from Ely city leaders to ranchers, tribes and environmentalists.
The opposition cites a lack of communication from the developers, a plan to build on environmentally and culturally sensitive land, concern over what would become essentially a mining operation in the nearby mountains and a threat to the profitability of one the region’s biggest economic drivers—the Nevada Northern Railway Company, which attracts thousands of tourists year-round to what locals say is the most isolated town in the Lower 48.
Then there’s the water.
Closed loop pumped storage projects need water to work, usually by pumping aquifers or by bringing in surface water from a nearby river or lake (pumped storage can be built along a river, called open-loop, but such projects have received less support because they require dams, which have drawn fierce pushback in recent years).
Here in the drought-stricken Southwest, groundwater is in short supply.”
The project first came on my radar a few years ago, around the time it made its way into a utility regulatory filing and accompanying media release: “NV Energy is also requesting funding to study and perform due diligence on a 1,000-megawatt pumped storage hydro project in White Pine County, NV that would also provide energy storage to further advance Nevada’s adoption of renewable resources.” At the time, it was another example of how the energy transition was placing new strains on water and communities in the Great Basin. Did it make sense to build this project in the nation’s driest state?
The other notable feature was the varied opposition. Where you might see a few local officials and governments weighing in on a project, this one had dozens of individuals writing in to express their concerns. The commission’s docket for the project includes filing after filing, more than 500. While that number includes other procedural filings, a lot are comments. There’s the Northern Nevada Railway Foundation. Or the McGill Ruth Consolidated Sewer & Water District, which wrote to regulators asking them “to deny the [final] application. This is not an open body of water; this is our drinking source. It is vital to our community, and we owe it to future generations to protect it.
The project is moving forward, with caveats (the federal commission ruled that the permit had deficiencies, which it must resolve before it can continue moving ahead).
And amid all the concerns about the project’s impact on local communities and the environment, it got a big backer recently in the state of Nevada. Earlier this month, the Nevada Governor’s Office of Energy submitted a letter in support of the project:
The Hoover Dam has made the State of Nevada famous for hydroelectricity. It's only fitting that our State leads the nation for this historic technology to be used as a long-term energy storage solution. The energy industry is a vital part of Nevada's economy and overall well-being, and our State is well-positioned to continue leading the nation in the energy landscape. For these reasons, the Nevada Governor's Office of Energy hereby supports the White Pine Pumped Storage Project.
Pumped storage hydropower is a game-changer and will assist with the state maintaining a sustainable, reliable balanced energy portfolio and energy security. It's a proven technology that has been used for over a century in the United States. It currently accounts for over 90% of our country's energy storage capacity, and we need more of it. By utilizing our region's natural topography and harnessing our citizens' independent spirit, we can store excess energy in our communities and return it to the electric grid when demand is peaking. This pivot towards energy self-sufficiency supports our economy and contributes to our nation's overall energy security. I recognize the White Pine Pumped Storage Project's potential to leverage local energy generation and contribute to rural prosperity.
The project strongly aligns with the Nevada Governor's Office of Energy's mission to "provide all Nevadans affordable, reliable, sustainable, and clean energy choices through a holistic and realistic approach." On behalf of the citizens of Nevada, I fully support the filing, review, and processing by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of the Final License Application for the White Pine Pumped Storage Project.
It’s not uncommon for the state, especially through the Governor’s Office of Energy, to weigh in on things. In 2020, Gov. Steve Sisolak backed a massive Southern Nevada solar project, covering 9,180 acres, that struggled to gain local support. But it will be interesting to watch how this project develops, especially how concerns around water are addressed in an area where there isn’t much to spare. More reporting on this to come.
Some other threads I’m following:
A ‘historic agreement:’ “The Biden administration, leaders of four Columbia River Basin tribes and the governors of Oregon and Washington celebrated on Friday as they signed papers formally launching a $1 billion plan to help recover depleted salmon populations in the Pacific Northwest,” the AP’s Matthew Daly reports.
For all of the many exhaustive agreements, rules, compacts and treaties that govern the Colorado River, there are still foundational allocation questions and issues that remain unresolved. Eric Kuhn and John Fleck write about what avoiding one of these key questions means for the ongoing discussions over how to manage the river.
The Denver Post’s Elise Schmelzer on where things are with the negotiations.
“Arizona’s Auditor General has released a scathing report, criticizing the State Land Department for leasing land to a Saudi-owned company in western Arizona at cheap rates,” Howard Fischer reports. “The company, Fondomonte, used the land — and the groundwater beneath it — to grow alfalfa for dairy cattle in the Middle East.”
The L.A. Times’ Ian James talked with California water experts about managing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta effectively, avoiding some of the issues regulators have faced when relying on “voluntary agreements” between different parties.
The Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Alan Halaly on Lake Manly.
California’s water regulator, the State Water Resources Control Board, declined to put diversion limits on the Shasta River, E&E News’ Camille von Kaenel writes.
A final photo: A look at the Mississippi River from the sky. I was in New Orleans over the weekend for the 29th Tulane Environmental Law and Policy Conference, where I was on a panel focused on the Colorado River. A highlight for me though was getting to attend some of the other panels. One on Deepwater Horizon and the gulf coastline, another on Cancer Alley and another panel on how climate change is reshaping the state’s insurance market. For someone not very at all familiar with water issues in the southeast, it was eye-opening to learn about some of the differences and similarities. It was also inspiring to hear about the important work Tulane Law School is doing at their environmental law clinic. I hope to go back and visit the city again soon.