The Trump administration cancels a major solar project in Nevada

The Trump administration cancels a major solar project in Nevada

The Trump administration has canceled the proposed Esmeralda 7 Solar Project in Nevada, which would have been one of the largest solar energy facilities in the world.

Bureau of Land Management officials announced Thursday that an environmental impact assessment of the proposed renewable energy facility has been canceled, which in turn cancels the project, Politico reported.

The canceled project would have built seven solar energy generation projects at the Esmeralda site, which would have covered 118,000 acres of land in Nevada’s Esmeralda County and about 30 miles west of Tonopah and 270 miles northwest of Las Vegas.

The project would have generated up to 6.2 gigawatts of energy over its lifetime, which is enough energy to power up to 2 million homes, according to Heatmap.

The proposed solar project has generally been smoothly navigated by the Biden administration and would have included utility NextEra Energy and Invenergy among its developers, The New York Times reported.

Republican Governor Joe Lombardo of Nevada expressed concerns in a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in August that the solar project was being unnecessarily delayed or canceled.

Lombardo said the project’s completion would help Nevada better support the country’s energy needs for mining projects and data centers, according to The New York Times.

President Donald Trump previously criticized solar and wind energy projects as insufficient and costly compared to natural gas and coal-fired power generation plants.

Since Trump took office in January, the Interior Department has added new review requirements for wind and solar projects, which have slowed their development and prevented some from moving forward.

The Interior Ministry has also begun investigating bird deaths and other impacts on animal and plant life from major solar and wind projects.

Although the Esmeralda 7 project appears to have been canceled, another solar project in Nevada called Dodge Flat II is still underway, according to the BLM.