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Base: Solar project would hinder radar

The Nevada Air Force base praised by President Barack Obama for its renewable energy potential wants to shut down a private solar power project, citing potential interference between the project’s 600-foot tower and radar used to guide flight training.

Officials at Nellis Air Force Base are asking the Department of Interior to reject the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project, a proposed $700 million plant on federally owned land about 25 miles from the base’s Nevada Test and Training Range.

It would be the first commercial solar tower in the U.S., eventually supplying enough energy for more than 50,000 homes.

“The plant would be incompatible with our vital national security interests,” Col. Howard Belote, commander of the 99th Air Base Wing at Nellis, wrote in a June 3 letter to Interior’s Bureau of Land Management.

Nellis is about 200 miles from the proposed solar tower and has its own $100 million solar power plant.

Obama visited the base in May and called the plant “a shining example of what’s possible when we harness the power of clean, renewable energy.”

SolarReserve, the California company behind Crescent Dunes, had originally proposed a site closer to Nellis but moved it farther northwest in an effort to appease the Air Force.

Now Nellis suggests SolarReserve move the plant another 200 miles southeast, which could set the project back by more than a year, said Terry Murphy, SolarReserve’s president.

The Air Force is requesting the move because Crescent Dunes’ 600-foot solar steam generation tower and wind turbines could create so much background noise that it would be difficult for the service to find and track aircraft flying at the test range, said Nellis spokesman Charles Ramey.

“Bottom line is certain types of renewable energy technologies can interfere with air and ground radar systems if they’re located too close to the range,” Ramey said.

Murphy said Nellis is overstating the impact of his project on training operations.

To address Nellis’ concerns, SolarReserve has hired The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded nonprofit that often conducts studies for the Air Force.

“All of the preliminary findings are that it has very little impact on their operations,” Murphy said.

The Air Force also is conducting a study on the alternative energy potential around its training ranges that will include an evaluation of Crescent Dunes.

Nellis officials have given local governments and energy companies a list of requirements that, if followed, could severely limit alternative energy projects in some of Nevada’s prime energy locations.

According to a briefing given to the Nevada Nye County Board of Commissioners, Nellis wanted alternative energy projects to be shorter than 50 feet and have minimal interference with radar systems.

The standards would likely rule out most wind power farms and some solar power plants in “high risk” radar areas that extend several hundred miles to the north and west of the test range.

“One of the concerns is, even areas that are not restricted airspace, there are radar issues and other issues that the Air Force are concerned with,” said Darrell Lacy, the Nye County director of renewables.

The Air Force’s objection pits one government agency against another.

To encourage development of alternative energy sources, the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has been collecting proposals from commercial firms to build the massive power plants on federal land under a lease agreement. SolarReserve’s Crescent Dunes is part of this program.

Members of Congress in recent months have acknowledged the conflict between military and national energy priorities.

In a June 17 hearing before the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on readiness and management support, Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., said the resistance of military training ranges to alternative energy plants had a “chilling effect on renewable energy projects.”

In response, Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Installations and Environment Wayne Army said base commanders need to be more tolerant of alternative energy proposals outside their base boundaries.

“The department and the services have to educate them to open their mind a little bit and look at alternatives,” Army said. “Frankly, unless we own the land, if somebody wants to put in a solar site or wind on private land, there’s not much we can do.”