0
0
0
The Trump administration's cancellation of the largest solar project in the United States has sparked confusion and concern among Republicans and Democrats alike.
Known as the Esmerelda 7, the collection of seven solar projects in rural Nevada was set to generate up to 6.2 gigawatts of energy when complete, enough to power 2 million homes. That's an eye-popping amount of power to add to an electrical grid that desperately needs more of it, due to the insatiable demand from AI-related data centers and increasing residential needs.
Under former President Joe Biden, the federal government was moving the sprawling project through the federal permitting process as one proposal. Developers had planned to use 118,000 acres of federal land in Nevada's desert as the home for solar arrays and batteries to store the sun's energy.
Last week, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management quietly changed the project's status to "canceled" on its federal permitting webpage.
An Interior Department spokesperson said the status change was unrelated to the ongoing government shutdown and that project developers and the federal government had agreed to "change their approach" as part of "routine discussions" about the project.
Tap the link in bio for more.
📸 : Joseph SohmVisions of America/Universal Images Group/Getty Images
