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$156M federal grant will soon make community solar in Nevada a reality

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6M federal grant will soon make community solar in Nevada a reality


While rooftop solar has exploded in popularity among households looking to invest in renewable energy while saving money on electricity, high upfront costs have prevented lower-income residents from embracing the carbon saving technology.

But a $156 million federal grant to boost solar adoption for low-income Nevadans over the next five years offers a chance to change that.

Last month, the Nevada Clean Energy Fund was awarded the multi-million dollar “Solar for All” grant by the Environmental Protection Agency to support community solar projects that benefit low-income households.

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Nevada received the highest award amount per capita of any state. In fact, Nevada received the same award amount as Florida, Illinois, and Pennsylvania — states with significantly higher populations.

The program opens the doors for low-income residents and disadvantaged communities — those most impacted by climate change — to have access to solar energy without being financially burdened by prohibitive installation costs.

During a Joint Interim Standing Committee on Growth and Infrastructure Wednesday, Kirsten Stasio, the CEO of the Nevada Clean Energy Fund, said affordable housing developers and community solar developers could receive funding for projects as soon as December 2024.

“The opportunity before us is unlike one we’ve ever seen before,” Stasio said. “With these funds, we’re going to launch low-income solar programs for single family homes, affordable multifamily housing, as well as for community solar projects.”

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The Nevada Clean Energy Fund was created by state statute in 2017 with the goal of providing financing and technical assistance for clean energy projects in Nevada, but statutory barriers and a lack of funding has prevented the fund from implementing large-scale community solar projects. 

Many Nevadans are unable to invest in rooftop solar because of the high upfront costs needed for installations. Renters in the state have also been sidelined by the solar boom due to a lack of solar infrastructure.

“Community solar is really critical to unlocking solar for low-income communities and particular renters, which make up a big portion of the population, and those renters don’t necessarily have control over the roof,” Stasio said during the Wednesday meeting.

Other aspects of community solar have discouraged many lower-income residents from participating, including long contracts for renters, sometimes lasting 30 years, and penalty fees for leaving a contract prematurely. 

Until 2021, Nevada statute also prohibited those who live in individually metered multifamily buildings from being able to benefit from solar on the rooftop of their building. Senate Bill 488 remedies that by allowing owners of apartments, multi-family homes and commercial buildings to take advantage of the net metering program for rooftop solar.

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“Low income households in particular are often left behind in the clean energy transition, due to a lack of funding and technical assistance to access these funds. Yet, they’re the ones that need solar the most, and typically experience the highest energy cost burden,” Stasio said. 

A federal requirement under the $156 million dollar grant requires that any household benefiting from the funds must experience at least a 20% savings in energy costs. The Nevada program will partner with local governments, schools, nonprofits, tribes, and utilities to combine Solar for All funds with federal tax credits to build community solar projects that share the energy cost savings with low-income households.

The funding is part of a $7 billion federal grant program administered by the EPA and established using funds from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. 

Once the EPA reviews and approves recipient’s finalized documents, the Nevada Clean Energy Fund will be able to release the $156 million in funding for community solar developments in the state, said Stasio.

“We won’t be able to start drawing down funds until that happens, at least for significant program activities,” Stasio said.

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Low-income single-family homes who want to take advantage of funds from the Nevada Clean Energy Fund will also be able to apply by 2025.

“We’re going to have two different options, an ownership option for households that have that capacity, and a lease option for households that don’t,” Stasio said.

Stasio said the Nevada Clean Energy Fund is currently working with regional housing authorities and major affordable housing developers in Nevada to identify opportunities to put solar on affordable housing.

The EPA grant builds on other funding recently awarded to the Nevada Clean Energy Fund, including a $7.7 million federal grant in February to purchase 25 electric school buses around the state.

“We can achieve this goal with no cost for the school district, so we’re already getting requests,” Stasio said.

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“These electric school buses reduce maintenance costs by about $15,000 annually per bus, and they make children safer and free from harmful diesel air pollution that can cause asthma and other respiratory illnesses,” she continued.

That funding was awarded by the EPA’s Clean School Bus program, under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provided $5 billion to districts across the country to purchase zero- and low-emission school buses.



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Nevada

Nevada County Properties | Recreation Realty, Inc. returns to historic Highway 20 location in newly expanded community hub

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Nevada County Properties | Recreation Realty, Inc. returns to historic Highway 20 location in newly expanded community hub


Celebrating 50 years in business, Nevada County Properties | Recreation Realty, Inc. is thrilled to announce the consolidation of their two offices, Broad Street Nevada City and Hwy 20 at Harmony Ridge to its original home on Highway 20, Nevada City, at Harmony Ridge, this December! This move not only brings the company “back to its roots” but also provides the community with a newly expanded and renovated hub for convenience and connection.

The updated building is now home to three unique businesses: Nevada County Properties | Recreation Realty, Inc., Tour of Nevada City Bicycle Shop Outpost, and Harmony Ridge Market, offering residents and visitors a one-stop destination for real estate inquiries, outdoor recreation needs, and a local deli and convenience store all at the entrance to the popular Scotts Flat Lake recreation destination.



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Brendon Lewis era is over for Nevada football

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Brendon Lewis era is over for Nevada football


The Wolf Pack will have a new starting quarterback next season.

Brendon Lewis, who has played the majority of snaps the past two seasons, has committed to play football for Memphis next year.

Lewis played in 24 games at Nevada, completing 342 passes on 548 attempts for 3,603 yards, 18 touchdowns and 13 interceptions. He finishes his Wolf Pack career with a QB rating of 123.7.

Lewis previously played for the University of Colorado Buffaloes from 2020 to 2022.

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His departure leaves two quarterbacks on the Nevada roster for next season who played in 2024 — AJ Bianco and Chubba Purdy — along with incoming freshman Carter Jones, who coach Jeff Choate raved about on signing day Dec. 3.

Lewis’ departure wasn’t the only transfer portal roster change for Nevada. Wolf Pack offensive lineman Isaiah World has committed to Oregon and fellow linemen Tyson Ruffins will play for Stanford, while Josiah Timoteo will move to Oregon State.

The Wolf Pack has added Bryce Echols (6-foot-5, 271 pounds) a defensive lineman who played for Arizona last season and Hadine Diaby (6-3, 300) and offensive lineman who played for Tennessee State

The winter transfer window closes Saturday, Dec. 28. The spring window is set for 10 days, opening April 16 and closing April 25.

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Nevada football transfer portal 2024-25

  • Isaiah World, OT, RS Jr, 6-87, 280, to Oregon
  • Brendon Lewis, QB, RS Jr, 6-3, 209, to Memphis
  • Ike Nnakenyi, edge, RS So, 6-3, 220
  • KK Meier, S, RS So, 6-1, 203
  • Jonah Lewis, CB, so., 5-10, 168
  • Tyson Paala-Ruffins, OL, So., 6-3, 205, to Stanford
  • Drue Watts, LB, RS Jr, 6-1, 215
  • Mackavelli Malotumau, DL, Jr, 6-1, 290
  • Josiah Timoteo, OL, So, 6-4, 300,, to Oregon State
  • Luke Farr, OT, Fr., 6-6, 283
  • Sean Dollars, RB, RS Sr, 5-10, 185
  • Carter Jula, P, Fr, 6-2, 205
  • Devin Gunter, CB, Sr, 5-11, 175



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Looking back, Richard Bryan recalls more genteel era in politics in Nevada and the nation

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Looking back, Richard Bryan recalls more genteel era in politics in Nevada and the nation


LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Richard Bryan won the first political contest he ever ran, for 8th grade class president at John S. Park Elementary School.

That was his first entry into a political career that would take him from the Nevada Legislature, to the office of the attorney general to the governor’s mansion and finally to the United States Senate.

He recounts that storied career in a new book, “My Life in Nevada Politics,” penned with award-winning Nevada writer and columnist for the Nevada Independent John L. Smith.

Longtime locals will recognize many famous names, the people behind streets, schools and government buildings, and newcomers will learn that many of the things they take for granted started with the ambitious Bryan, who says he set his sights on the governor’s mansion early in his grade-school career.

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In an interview, Bryan recalls arriving in Carson City as a Democrat in 1968 to an Assembly newly controlled by Republicans. But the experience was not partisan.

“Part of the general collegiality, I believe, was derived from the building itself,” Bryan says in the book. “It was crowded, and we had no offices to retreat to. Only the leaders of each house had them. Legislators did not have a personal staff. You brought your work with you to your desk on the floor and shared from a pool of secretaries after the morning business was concluded. Everyone had to work around everyone else’s schedule. There was no cafeteria. That meant there was mingling on the floor during breaks.”

That meant getting to know other lawmakers, ones from other parties and from other parts of the state, which led to genuine friendships between lawmakers and cooperation in solving the problems the state faced.

But that collegiality faded over time, in Washington, D.C. and, to a lesser extent, in Carson City. In an interview, Bryan traces the unraveling to the election in 1994 of Georgia Congressman Newt Gingrich as Republican speaker of the House of Representatives. Gingrich discouraged Republicans from socializing with Democrats because he considered them rivals and not friends.

“The scholars I’m sure have their view,” Bryan said. “Mine is Newt Gingrich, by the way, a very intelligent and capable guy. But his predecessor … was of the old school, let’s work together. Gingrich believed that what was needed was not some modification but to take the structure down and build it again. And that was very partisan.”

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The partisanship is part of the reason that Bryan decided after two terms in the. U.S. Senate not to run for re-election in 2000. His replacement? One of Gingrich’s House revolutionaries from the 1994 election, Republican John Ensign.

During his career, Bryan faced the bitter sectionalism that has plagued Nevada for decades. In college, he was initially rebuffed as his fraternity’s pledge president because he was from Las Vegas. But by making incessant trips to rural Nevada — and participating in traditional rural Nevada events — Bryan won over northern constituents. In his 1986 bid for governor, Bryan won every county in the state, something unprecedented in present-day Nevada politics.

In his time, Bryan also assembled an impressive list of firsts:

  • He was the first lawyer to head up the then-newly created public defenders office.
  • He was behind some of the state’s first conflict-of-interest laws.
  • He signed the bill creating the Nevada Film Office.
  • He opened a state trade office in Japan.
  • He hired the first woman to serve as chief of staff in the governor’s office, Marlene Lockard.
  • He brought the National Finals Rodeo to Las Vegas.
  • He got the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act passed.

Key to getting many of those things done was compromise, which Bryan considers a lost art because he says too many modern politicians think it requires you to surrender your principles.
“I never felt that,” Bryan said. “I guess among my critics I might have been too much of a pragmatist. What does it take to get this done? How can we work this out? Now, I wasn’t always successful. Sometimes, I mean, you had people kind of dug in and boy, there was not ability to do that.”

Bryan traces his path into public service to his father, who also held office.

“I think every citizen has an obligation, as he [Oscar Bryan] said, to pay your civic rent, to be involved. I like public service. Not everybody needs to do that. I think there’s something that’s fundamental. One, set your goal. Set your goal, work to it. … The point there is that everybody’s had a setback in their life, whatever it is, that could be a learning experience. It was for me.”

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Bryan acknowledges that it would be difficult to campaign today as he did in the 1970s and 1980s, with the advent of social media, the 24-hour news cycle, the explosion of Nevada’s population and the increased partisanship that shuts out centrist candidates in favor of louder, more strident members of the fringe.

“I must say, it’s such a sad thing because it’s really harder today to get good people to run, Republican, Democrat, independent, whatever, because they’re saying, ‘I just don’t want to go through that.’”





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