CARSON CITY, Nev. A Colorado renewable energy developer filed two applications with Nevada utility regulators on Sept. 29 for solar farms that would together add 2,000 megawatts of generating capacity to the state, enough to raise Nevada’s entire installed solar fleet by about 24 percent based on this outlet’s own calculation against the state’s current total.
The filings, docket 26-09024 for the Juniper Peak Solar Farm and docket 26-09023 for the Amber Flats Solar Farm, each describe an “up to 1,000 MW photovoltaic solar electric generating facility” paired with a battery storage system, a 500 kV transmission tie line and an onsite substation, spread across federal and private land in Churchill, Lyon and Washoe counties.
Both projects come from Boulder, Colorado based Scout Clean Energy, which filed the two notices with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada on the same day.
Two Sites, Same Developer, 34,800 Acres Southeast of Pyramid Lake
Juniper Peak would sit in Little Valley, on the western flank of the Truckee Range north of Interstate 80, on roughly 17,700 acres, about 9,700 acres of private land and nearly 8,000 acres of Bureau of Land Management land, with its solar fields and battery storage sited in Washoe County.
Amber Flats would sit across the range in North Valley, on about 17,100 acres, roughly 8,900 acres private and 8,200 acres public, with its solar fields in Churchill County. Both projects’ transmission tie lines would run through Washoe, Churchill and Lyon counties, and both list a target operational date of 2030.
| Juniper Peak | Amber Flats | |
|---|---|---|
| PUCN docket | 26-09024 | 26-09023 |
| Solar capacity | Up to 1,000 MW | Up to 1,000 MW |
| Site location | Little Valley, western Truckee Range | North Valley, eastern Truckee Range |
| Total acreage | About 17,700 acres | About 17,100 acres |
| Private land | About 9,700 acres | About 8,900 acres |
| Federal or public land | Nearly 8,000 acres (BLM) | About 8,200 acres (public) |
| Solar field county | Washoe County | Churchill County |
| Target operational date | 2030 | 2030 |
Both filings would individually exceed the 690 MW Gemini Solar Project in Clark County, which went into service in 2024 as Nevada’s largest utility-scale solar plant. Combined, Juniper Peak and Amber Flats would come in at about 2.9 times Gemini’s capacity, in a single pair of filings.
What 2,000 Megawatts Does to Nevada’s Solar Math
Nevada had 8,254 megawatts of solar installed as of the Solar Energy Industries Association’s third quarter 2026 report, enough to rank the state eighth nationally and supply about 34 percent of Nevada’s electricity.
Adding the 2,000 megawatts proposed in these two filings, independent of whether either one is ultimately approved, would increase that statewide total by about 24 percent.
2,000 megawatts: combined capacity of the Juniper Peak and Amber Flats filings.
34,800 acres: combined project footprint, about 54 square miles.
24 percent: the increase over Nevada’s current 8,254 MW of installed solar, by this outlet’s calculation.
About 341,600 homes: what that added capacity would power, scaling SEIA’s statewide homes-per-megawatt figure to the new total, by this outlet’s calculation.
The 54 square mile combined footprint works out to roughly 2.4 times the land area of Manhattan, which the New York City Department of City Planning lists at 14,581 acres. The comparison is a measure of footprint only, not of the land’s use or terrain; most of the proposed acreage is undeveloped desert valley rather than anything resembling an urban grid.
A clean acres-per-megawatt comparison to Gemini is not possible with the numbers available. Gemini’s 7,100 acres, per the Bureau of Land Management’s 2020 Record of Decision, covers its solar arrays alone, while Juniper Peak’s and Amber Flats’s acreage figures, as reported, bundle solar fields with their paired battery storage systems. The two totals describe different things and should not be divided against each other.
Who Pays, According to the Filings
Scout Clean Energy’s applications tell regulators the projects “would not have any adverse effects on the health, safety, or welfare of Nevada residents,” and would instead bring unspecified jobs and revenue to the state.
The filings argue the commission’s review should have no bearing on Nevada electricity customers at all, because the applicant is not a Nevada public utility and its costs “would not be passed down to Nevada’s ratepayers.” Neither filing includes a dollar figure for construction cost, projected tax revenue or job count.
Scout’s chief development officer, Kris Cheney, told the Nevada Independent the company is “not planning to comment on these projects at this time.”
The Pushback
Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of the conservation group Basin and Range Watch, told the Nevada Independent the projects “are so large, they would geoengineer the landscape and fundamentally change the natural processes” that have shaped the area.
He also raised concerns about effects on native species including the greater sage grouse, water use during construction and operation, and a localized heat island effect from the paired solar and battery facilities. Neither the Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe nor Washoe County officials are quoted in the filings or in reporting on them so far.
What Happens Next
Both notices were filed under Nevada’s Utility Environmental Protection Act, which requires developers to notify the state when they seek federal approval for projects of this scale on the land involved.
Neither docket’s public file lays out a hearing date or an approval timeline, and both projects list 2030 as a target for commercial operation, four years out. Whether either farm is ultimately built depends on approvals this filing does not by itself grant, from the federal land managers who control most of the acreage involved to whatever state and local permits follow.
