Barrick Gold nearly done with major solar facility

Barrick Gold is nearing completion of a solar-panel farm east of Sparks that's almost certainly the largest solar facility in northern Nevada.

The $10 million facility involving 7,404 solar panels will generate about 1 megawatt of power enough power to meet the needs of about 300 households.

Equally important to the mining company, however, is the role that the solar facility plays in allowing Barrick to get off the Sierra Pacific Power Co. grid.

The mining company, the biggest gold producer in the state, built a 115-megawatt, gas-fired generating station just off Interstate 80 at Tahoe Reno Industrial Center about 15 miles east of Reno.

The $100 million plant, the result of a state law that allows big power users to develop their own sources of power, came on line in late 2005.

But Barrick's move into power generation also carried a responsibility under state law to meet a portion of its generating needs from renewable sources, says Anne-Marie Cuneo, who manages the resource and market analysis division of the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada.

Much of the focus on renewable energy in northern Nevada, however, has been directed toward development of geothermal resources rather than construction of solar facilities.

As a result, Cuneo believes the Barrick solar photovoltaic project is larger than any other solar project in the region. She noted that Barrick was in a good position to develop a solar project because it already owned the eight acres on which the solar farm is located and it already had invested in the electric transmission lines that serve the gas-fired plant next door.

The Storey County solar farm is dwarfed, however, by solar projects in the deserts of southern Nevada. Near Boulder City, a project known as Nevada Solar has been generating 64 megawatts 64 times more power than the Barrick facility since it came online in June.

About half of the solar panels manufactured by Sharp have been installed and are in operation at the Barrick plant, says company spokesman Louis Schack. The remainder of the project is projected to be in operation by Feburary.

The solar farm's output, he says, will provide power needed in the operation of the gas-fired power plant next door.

"It's a good opportunity to demonstrate that this is possible," Schack says.

Mining companies are among the biggest users of power in northern Nevada, and both Barrick and Newmont Mining, the state's second biggest gold producer, were quick to develop their own generating plants when they were allowed to exit the Sierra Pacific Power grid.

Barrick has estimated that development of the gas-fired power plant next to the solar farm would reduce its production costs by as much as $9 an ounce.