Gambling on Solar Power

Early July marked a big change for casinos in Las Vegas - the Mandalay Bay Events Center finished installing the largest set of solar panels in the nation. Consuming over 28 acres of space, the panels cover their rooftop, no doubt harnessing an immense amount of energy in Nevada’s blazing sunshine. Mandalay isn’t the only casino with plans to convert to solar energy; both the Sands and Wynn Resort complexes have also expressed an interest to switching to this renewable power source. Although it’s a step in the right direction for the state of Nevada, and the nation as a whole, to integrate solar power more effectively, it leaves Vegas residents in a hard place.

As it stands, the three casinos who have already switched or are in the process of switching are the biggest customers of NV Energy, Nevada’s utility provider. Since they will no longer be receiving revenue from these power hungry buildings, they must offset the loss of income onto other residential customers. This means Las Vegas residents will get a rate hike, and this might possibly encourage them to also switch to solar power. It becomes a domino effect of continuously rising rates and the tolerance levels of customers reaching new lows.

The Nevada Public Utilities Commission has come up with a stop gap solution to control some of these spiraling costs. Because the PUC is responsible for monitoring rates and service provided to Nevada residents, they are requiring an exit fee from anyone who decides to go off the grid and switch away from standard electric service. The cost for MGM to leave NV Energy? A staggering $87 million!

This transition is just another example of the struggle that comes with radically changing our nation’s primary energy source. As the benefits of solar energy become more and more apparent, and as more people convert over, we can only hope that there will be better systems in place for dealing with the changes.