page_title: Nellis Solar Power Plant
section_title: Renewable portfolio standard
hierarchical_section_title: Nellis Solar Power Plant / Renewable portfolio standard
caption_attribution_description: English: Nellis Solar Power Plant located within Nellis Air Force Base, northeast of Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. The power plant occupies 140 acres, contains about 70,000 solar panels and generates 14 megawatts of solar power for the base. Français&#160;: Les centres de production centralisés (y compris éoliens et solaires) sont nécessaires dans la phase de transition vers la Troisième révolution industrielle, mais pourront, selon Rifkin, être ensuite remplacés par des bâtiments et infrastructures qui produiront l'énergie au plus près de son lieu de consommation. Español: Planta de energía solar de la Base Nellis de la Fuerza Aérea, al noreste de Las Vegas, Nevada, Estados Unidos. Esta planta de energía ocupa 140 acres, contiene alrededor de 70,000 paneles solares, y genera 14 megavatios de energía solar para la base. Los grandes centros de producción de energía como este (tanto de energía eólica como solar) son necesarios en la fase de transición hacia la Tercera revolución industrial, aunque según Rifkin, posteriormente podrán ser remplazados en forma paulatina por edificaciones e infraestructuras que puedan producir y almacenar energía más cerca de los lugares de consumo.
context_page_description: The Nellis Solar Power Plant is a 14-megawatt photovoltaic power station located within Nellis Air Force Base in Clark County, Nevada, northeast of Las Vegas. The power plant was inaugurated in a ceremony on December 17, 2007, with Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons activating its full operation. On average, it has since generated 32 gigawatt-hours of electricity annually and supplied more than 25% of the power used at the base.
  Occupying 140 acres of land leased from the Air Force at the northeastern corner of the base, this ground-mounted solar system employs an advanced sun tracking system, designed and deployed by SunPower. The system contains approximately 70,000 solar panels, and the peak power generation capacity of the plant is approximately 13 MWAC. This means the ratio of average to peak output, or capacity factor, of this plant is around 22%.
  The energy generated will support more than 12,000 military and civilians at Nellis who are responsible for Air Force advanced combat training, tactics development and operational testing. Construction began on April 23, 2007, and operation of the first 5 MW began on October 12, 2007.
context_section_description: In 1999, Nevada passed a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) as part of their 1997 Electric Restructuring Legislation (AB 366). It required any electric providers in the state to acquire actual renewable electric generation or purchase renewable energy credits so that each utility had 1 percent of total consumption in renewables. However, on June 8, 2001, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn signed SB 372, at the time the country's most aggressive renewable portfolio standard. The law requires that 15 percent of all electricity generated in Nevada be derived from new renewables by the year 2013.
  The 2001, revision to the RPS keeps in place Nevada's commitment to expand solar energy resources by requiring that at least 5 percent of the renewable energy projects must generate electricity from solar energy.
  In June 2005, the Nevada legislature passed a bill during a special legislative session that modified the Nevada RPS (Assembly Bill 03). The bill extends the deadline and raised the requirements of the RPS to 20 percent of sales by 2015.
caption: A section of the Nellis Solar Power Plant
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "On 140 acres of unused Nellis land, 70,000 solar panels await activation as the first third of the solar photovoltaic array gets commissioned Oct. 12 with the other 66 percent of the panels scheduled for activation in the next two months. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Nadine Y. Barclay)", "Image Make": "EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY", "Image Model": "KODAK C875 ZOOM DIGITAL CAMERA", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS2 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2007:12:07 07:42:10", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "564", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1198", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11860", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/500", "EXIF FNumber": "9/2", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Program Normal", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "64", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:10:03 14:26:49", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:10:03 14:26:49", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "9", "EXIF ApertureValue": "43/10", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "1", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "17/5", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "63/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1800", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1350", "EXIF ExposureIndex": "64", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "0", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "59", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "None", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}