Being first across the line is always cause for celebration, but when the course resembles a tough mudder when you signed up for a 1,600-meter hurdle, the exhilaration of the finish is even sweeter. The Moapa Band of Paiute Indians enjoyed that euphoria in March during the groundbreaking for the first commercial-scale renewable project on Indian lands. Of the dozens of renewables projects proposed in Indian country, and the hundreds in various stages of development throughout the West, the Moapa and their developer, First Solar Inc., achieved what few believed possible — approval of a 250-megawatt solar facility in southern Nevada entirely on lands held in trust by the federal government on behalf of an Indian tribe.
The Moapa Southern Paiute Solar Project began its journey from paper to shovel in 2009, when the Nevada Legislature passed tax-abatement legislation designed to encourage large renewable energy projects. The Nevada Energy Tax Abatement Program provided for a partial abatement of sales, use and property taxes in exchange for commitments from a developer to pay above-standard wages and provide benefits to construction employees and their dependents.
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