The National Clean Energy summit at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas in Nevada began with the announcement of a $105 million federal loan guarantee to help construct a biofuel refinery outside Reno, where garbage will be turned into jet fuel.
Tesla also announced a $5 billion investment to establish its battery Gigafactory in the same Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center.
Senator Harry Reid told that the factory will create lot of job opportunities for locals and spur economic development in Nevada.
Tesla will be able to buy lithium for its batteries directly from a mine in the Esmeralda County town of Silver Peak.
When Tesla CEO Elon Musk was the keynote speaker at the summit in 2012, he spoke about the importance of innovation and investment in clean energy and now he is putting his words into action by announcing this critical investment in Nevada, Reid said.
Initially, Reid along with Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced the loan guarantee that will allow Fulcrum BioEnergy to build its first biofuel plant and eventually produce aviation and marine fuel for the Defense Department.
The nation is entering a new energy age that will make it more energy independent, cut carbon pollution and strengthen the economy, especially in rural communities where clean fuels will be produced, Vilsack said.
Fulcrum president and CEO Jim Macias said the garbage-to-fuels plant in the city of McCarran will make aviation fuel for commercial aircraft. With financing now in place, construction on the $200 million project should begin later this year, he added.
The Sierra BioFuels Plant will create 500 to 600 construction jobs and 100 permanent jobs when the plant opens in two years, Macias said.
According to Fulcrum, the company has secured no-cost agreements with Waste Management and Waste Connections in North America to supply the municipal solid waste to make biofuel in Northern Nevada.
In a recent development, NV Energy has committed a $5.5 billion renewable energy investment that has created thousands of jobs.
According to Reid, 2013 saw the installation of 400,000 solar panels across the nation, a 41 percent increase from the year before. Over the last eighteen months, more solar panels have been installed than in the entire history of our country.
On Wednesday, 50 miles south of Las Vegas, ground was broken on Nevada’s latest utility-scale solar project, one of two now under construction in Southern Nevada that will rank as the largest in the state.
Nevada has approved a mandatory rule that at least one-quarter of the power used in the state to come from renewable sources by 2025.
A clean renewable energy generation has to be built until there is enough capacity to cover one hundred percent of Nevada’s electric load. There’s simply no reason why Nevada cannot and should not achieve this goal as it has more than enough sun, wind and geothermal resources, pointed Reid, echoing a challenge Bill Clinton issued at the first clean energy summit.