About 70 attend solar meeting

A German company's plan to build a $1 billion solar thermal power plant in the Amargosa Valley 80 miles northwest of Las Vegas stirred controversy at a meeting Monday night.

Some of the about 70 attendees at a Bureau of Land Management meeting at the Centennial Hills YMCA said they feared the project would deplete underground reservoirs. Many who objected to water consumption plans, however, favor the Amargosa Farm Road Solar Project and want it designed to use less water.

Solar Millennium, the German power plant developer, wants to build a pair of solar power plants with wet cooling, because it is more efficient than dry cooling.

The company proposes to use curved gas panels to focus the heat of the sun. The heat would make steam to spin turbines and generate a total of 484 million watts of electricity, some of which NV Energy is expected to buy.

The project would provide up to 1,600 jobs during construction and 180 permanent maintenance and operation jobs.

Assemblyman Ed Goedhart, R-Amargosa, called the solar power project a good alternative to the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste disposal repository, which he opposed.

Water for the solar plant would be diverted from alfalfa farms and would not increase the amount of water pulled from underground reservoirs, Goedhart said.

Goedhart said the level of water in his well wasn't dropping. Goedhart rejected statements to the contrary from Amargosa resident George Tucker, who cited studies.

Judy Bundorf said she worried that drawing water for the power project would affect the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, an uncommon desert oasis where 24 unique plants and animals live, including the pupfish.

Erin DeLee argued that the project could help the economically struggling residents and school children. "The kids don't have any money," she said."There's nothing out there for the kids at all."