This is a guest post from my travel partner, Todd Dwyer, head blogger for Dell’s ReGeneration.org, where the piece originally appeared.
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The ReGeneration Road Trip rolled into Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas to see North America’s largest solar photovoltaic power plant. Covering 140 acres and providing some 14 megawatts of electricity (enough to power 13,200 homes), this place has to be seen to be truly believed.
The huge solar panels, designed and built by the SunPower Corporation, stretch in all directions as far as the eye can see, and every 30 seconds or so, the panels whir as they slowly turn to track the brutal Nevada sun across the sky.
Not only is the Air Force taking advantage of Las Vegas’ most persistent (to put it nicely) resource, the sun, but this array was built on the grounds of an old landfill, saving money that would have otherwise been used to make the land livable again. The solar plant meets about 25 percent of the electricity requirements of the base.
We caught up with Colonel Pat Fogerty, the base’s Civil Engineer Squadron commander, to learn more about the solar plant as well as other green initiatives the base has accomplished:
We’ve also got a few videos from the base and our conversation with Col. Fogerty on our Qik page.
A few of the pictures we took while we were there:
