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The US has moved to cancel what would have been the largest solar project in North America, as the Trump administration expands its attack on the embattled renewable energy industry.
Late on Thursday the Bureau of Land Management scrapped approval for Esmeralda 7, a 6.2 gigawatt project that could have powered nearly 2mn homes. It had begun the permitting process under the Biden administration.
The high-profile Nevada solar project backed by NextEra Energy, the largest renewable energy company in the US, is the latest to become a casualty of the Trump administration. The American president has called renewable energy projects a “scam”.
The Esmeralda 7 project consisted of seven solar farms and battery systems and was backed by power developers including Arevia Power, ConnectGen and Invenergy. It would have covered about 62,300 acres of federal lands in the Nevada desert north-west of Las Vegas.
Since January, Doug Burgum’s Department of the Interior has accelerated permitting for fossil fuel projects while tightening restrictions on solar and wind initiatives.
Large offshore wind projects have already been drawn into the administration’s crosshairs. In April Burgum ordered Equinor to halt construction activities on its 810 megawatt Empire offshore wind farm and issued a stop work order on Ørsted’s Revolution Wind.
While both projects were eventually allowed to proceed, industry backers say the uncertainty undermines US energy needs and investor confidence.
The crackdown on renewables comes as the country faces soaring power demand due to the proliferation of data centres to fuel the rise of artificial intelligence as well as the electrification of vehicles and home appliances.
NV Energy, the state’s largest utility, projects that power demand will be 34 per cent higher in 2035 compared with 2022.
“We remain deeply concerned that this administration continues to flout the law to the detriment of consumers, the grid and America’s economic competitiveness,” said Ben Norris, vice-president of regulatory affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association.
“We need more power on the grid, fast, and the solar and storage industry is ready to provide it, but we need the administration to get serious about truly achieving American energy dominance.”
The Department of the Interior did not confirm that the project had been cancelled, but said it and the project developers had “agreed to change” approach and that they would have the option to “submit individual project proposals to . . . more effectively analyse potential impacts”.
NextEra said it “remain[s] committed to pursuing our project’s comprehensive environmental analysis by working closely with the Bureau of Land Management”.
Invenergy declined to comment.
