NIMBYism Puts The Kibosh On America’s Largest Solar Power Plant
In many parts of the American southwest, a mesa is a flat topped geological formation known as a tableland. One of them is the Morman Mesa, a 149,000 acre tableland located above the confluence of the Muddy and Virgin Rivers, north of Las Vegas, Nevada.
The area is under the control of the federal Bureau of Land Management and is a protected area for the desert tortoise. It is also the home of Double Negative, an artistic rendering by artist Micheal Heizer. It consists of two trenches 30 feet wide, 50 feet deep, and 1500 feet long dug into the Earth. It is significant that the 244,000 tons of rocks excavated to create the “sculpture” were unceremoniously dumped into the valley below during its construction. More about that later.
Several years ago, a plan spearheaded by then Senator Harry Reid was put forward to build Battle Born Solar Project, the largest solar power plant in the United States, on Mormon Mesa. The project would cover 14 square miles — about 9000 acres, or less than 7% of the mesa’s total area. Over time, the project developer became Solar Partner VII, a subsidiary of California based Arevia.
Even though the project would be sited out of sight of nearby towns, it provoked a fierce backlash from the local community, a backlash that coalesced into something called Save Our Mesa. At the end of July, Arevia notified BLM it was abandoning the project. The Save Our Mesa folks were ecstatic.
The group argued such a large installation would be an eyesore and curtail the area’s popular recreational activities such as riding dirt bikes and ATVs and skydiving. It also said it would discourage tourists from visiting Heizer’s Double Negative sculpture. But the heart of the protest was “not in my backyard” self-interest. Let’s take a look at the overheated language presented on the group’s website.
I first want to make it clear that we are just a group of residents that saw a possible tragedy for our community and our way of life. We are NOT against renewable energy, we are against irresponsible decisions that are being made without sufficient studies as to what the impacts are.
The majority of our community’s revenue comes from tourism. We lost a lot of tourism and businesses when the shrinking lake levels of Lake Mead occurred closing a nearby beach. We have struggled but built back our economy through tourism. When people come and camp/hotel for a week, they buy our gas, our groceries, eat in our restaurants, use our mechanics and parts stores. This allows these businesses to thrive thus keeping us self sufficient. Feedback from many of our Snowbirds was that they would look for new places to go ‘[if the solar power plant was built]. That’s lost revenue.
We were simply trying to save our community and our way of life. We are not expendable for the “greater good” as I was told we should be! Moapa Valley would NOT gain anything from this project. In fact the power was slated for California. So why should we sacrifice OUR lives? The solar farm that was being proposed was going to be the largest in the nation. 14 sq miles, equivalent to 2/3 the size of Manhattan. Our homes are less than 8000’ from it.
There aren’t enough studies to show what this size of a project would do to us. Will our temps be too hot to live here, would the dust choke us or make us sick, would we ever get rainfall? Would our rivers, that run down both sides of the Mesa into Lake Mead, get contaminated? The list goes on. These were SERIOUS concerns! Simply “saying” that won’t happen, was not good enough, we were essentially going to be lab rats. Our goal all along was to get them to move this project to a more appropriate location, in which they have stated is one of their reasons for withdrawal.
Why are we not pushing for rooftop solar as much as we are pushing to destroy the desert southwests public lands? Look at the rooftops available in major metropolitan areas alone!! Las Vegas has thousands of acres of rooftop with the casinos alone!
We need to slow this rush to solar farms in the desert until studies are done. What will it look like in 10, 20, or 30 years down the road when all these solar farms age out. Are we creating a bigger problem for our future generations when there is millions of tons of non-recyclable waste? The deserts would never recover. Once it’s done, it can’t be undone.
Dissecting The Opposition
OK. That’s quite a long list of complaints Save Our Mesa has got there. And some of them are valid. If the Battle Born Solar Project did actually have a negative impact on the local economy [the developers says it would create over 2,000 new jobs], that would be a valid reason to oppose it. But many of the group’s complaints are 100% pure horse puckey.
A solar power plant will create dust that will roll down and pollute the local lakes and rivers, but thousands of people tearing up the landscape on dirt bikes, off-road vehicles, and jeeps won’t? That strains credulity. Millions of tons of non-recyclable waste? Where did they hear that, Tucker Carlson? And what about the 244,000 tons of debris from the Double Negative project that got dumped into the valley below. Was that used to mulch the petunias in local flower beds?
That seems like the comment left recently on a story I did about Toyota and its anti-EV policies. “Super smart move, let’s all replace CO2 emissions with toxic batteries that end up in rivers and lakes.” Yup, there’s some certified Artificial Stupidity right there.
Selfishness And Self-Interest
NIMBYism is strong in some of the group’s complaints. Why should they provide electricity to those pinheads in San Francisco and LA? The connection between an overheating planet and a lack of water to fill Lake Mead apparently is too remote for them to comprehend. But people are funny. Folks in Wyoming wonder the same thing about wind farms that supply power to West Coast nerds. Those who live in western New York are none too keen about giving up their farmland to keep the lights on in New York City.
Can you suggest a strategy that might help get people onboard with renewable energy? How about cutting them in on the deal by sharing some of that clean energy with the local community? That’s such a no brainer that it’s hard to believe every renewable energy developer doesn’t make it part of their toolkit every time a project is proposed.
Would the attitudes of local residents change if they could have access to clean energy at an attractive price? How about helping them get residential storage batteries that would keep their lights on if there is a power outage?
The Takeaway
A lot of the complaints about the Battle Born Solar Project are overblown, but there is a kernel of reality to them. People who are worried about their personal finances are inclined to be a little bit skittish about slick-talking outsiders riding into town with a trunk load of fancy promises. I’m nobody from nowhere, but I know a developer has to offer the locals something to get them to buy in to all those pie-in-the-sky plans.
You wouldn’t expect a new car customer to buy an EV just because it’s good for the planet, would you? Why should renewable energy be any different? These developers don’t seem to have a very good understanding of human behavior. Yes, the locals doth protest too much, but the developer deserves some blame for handling the public relations aspect of its project so poorly.
Why spend all that time and money on plans and permits but none on some good old-fashioned salesmanship? The US and the world are the big losers in this deal.
[Editor’s note: Some research in Denmark several years ago found that a critical solution to avoid NIMBYism blocking large wind power projects was to bring the financial benefits to locals to some degree — give them a cut of the profits. I’m not sure how much that insight is used by large renewable energy project developers, but as Steve says, at this stage, “it’s hard to believe every renewable energy developer doesn’t make it part of their toolkit every time a project is proposed.” My impression, though, is that not much is offered to local communities in almost all cases. Promises of jobs and an economic boost, of course, but not clear direct benefits to nearby residents. —Zach]
![Classic Jeep Grand Wagoneer gets a battery electric makeover [video]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/11/grand-wagoneer_EV_2.jpg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Texas-based tuning firm Vigilante 4×4 is known for its wild, high-horsepower Jeep SJ Hemi restomods – but they’re more than just a hot rod shop. To prove it, they’ve developed a bespoke, all-electric skateboard chassis designed to turn the classic Jeep Grand Wagoneer into a modern, desirable electric SUV.
The scope of the Vigilante 4×4 electric chassis project is truly impressive. More than just a Jeep SJ frame with an electric drive train bolted in, the chassis is a completely fresh design that utilizes precise 3D scans of the original SJ Wagoneers, Grand Wagoneers, and J-Trucks to establish hard points, then fitted with low-slung battery packs to give the electric restomods superior weight balance, a lower center of gravity, and objectively improved ride and handling compared to its classic, ICE-powered forefathers.
The result is a purpose-built platform that delivers power to the wheels through a dual-motor system – one mounted in the front, and one at the rear – to provide a permanent, infinitely variable four-wheel drive system that offers both on-road performance and the kind of off-road capability that made the Grand Wagoneer famous in the first place.
Vigilante 4×4 electric Jeep SJ
“This isn’t a replacement for our Vigilante HEMI offerings,” reads the official copy. “It’s a total revisit of the Vigilante platform under electric power.”
The company emphasizes that its new chassis is still in the prototype stages. As such, there are no specs, there is no pricing, there are no range estimates. Despite it all, the response from Jeep enthusiasts has already been strong. “Keep in mind this is our first prototype,” a spokesperson said. “There’s still a lot of work to be done – but the journey has begun.”
Electrek’s Take
Retro done wrong – think the Dodge Charger Daytona EV or VW ID.Buzz – is a disaster. Always. If that nostalgic tone is just a little bit off, the song doesn’t work. The heartstrings don’t pull. Done right, however, the siren song of nostalgia will have you putting a second mortgage on your house to put a Singer Porsche or ICON Bronco in your garage.
It’s too soon to tell what side of that line the Vigilante 4×4 Jeep SJ will eventually fall, but one thing (at least) is certain: it’s closer to the mark than that Wagoneer S.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Vigilante 4×4, via Mopar Insiders.
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EQORE, a distributed battery storage startup based in Somerville, Massachusetts, has raised $1.7 million in seed funding to help industrial buildings tackle rising electricity costs. The round was oversubscribed and includes backing from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC), Henry Ford III of Ford Motor Company, and Jonathan Kraft of The Kraft Group.
The timing couldn’t be more relevant. Data centers are booming, and that demand is slamming an already stressed grid. Big, utility-scale batteries help at the grid level, but they can’t fix the bottlenecks happening on local distribution networks. That’s where onsite storage steps in — storing energy when demand is low and discharging it when demand spikes, which helps stabilize costs for both the grid and the businesses using it.
MassCEC’s head of investments, Susan Stewart, said, “What excites us the most about EQORE’s technology is the dual impact: grid support and customer savings.” She noted that commercial and industrial buildings are ideal hosts for battery storage, but haven’t gotten much attention until now. “EQORE is closing that gap.”
Investor Randolph Mann highlighted what makes the company stand out: “By uniting advanced controls with high‑resolution metering and true end‑to‑end service, EQORE finally makes commercial behind-the-meter storage effortless and financially compelling for businesses.”
EQORE comes out of MIT’s Sandbox program and delta v accelerator and is currently part of the Harvard Climate Entrepreneurs Circle incubator. CEO and cofounder Valeriia Tyshchenko, a third‑generation engineer from Ukraine and MIT graduate, said the new funding will help the company scale alongside its existing revenue.
With the seed round closed, EQORE plans to grow its team and ramp up battery deployments at energy-intensive manufacturing facilities. The company doesn’t just install batteries; it operates them. Its autonomous software shifts when a facility uses power based on market conditions and utility incentives, reshaping load in real-time without disrupting operations.
Read more: Battery boom: 5.6 GW of US energy storage added in Q2
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![Check out Hyundai's cool new off-road electric SUV concept [Images]](https://i0.wp.com/electrek.co/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2025/11/Hyundai-off-road-SUV.jpeg?resize=1200,628&quality=82&strip=all&ssl=1)
Hyundai took the sheets of its new off-road electric SUV, the Crater Concept, at the LA Auto Show. Here’s our first look at the compact off-roader.
Meet Hyundai’s new off-road SUV, the Crater Concept
We knew it was coming after Hyundai teased the off-road SUV earlier this week, hidden under a drape. Hyundai took the sheets off the Crater Concept at the LA Auto Show on Thursday, giving us our first real look at the rugged off-roader.
Hyundai refers to it as a compact off-road SUV that’s inspired by extreme events. The concept was brought to life at the Hyundai America Technical Center in Irvine, California.
The off-road SUV draws design elements from Hyundai’s Extra Rugged Terrain (XRT) models, such as the IONIQ 5 XRT, Santa Cruz XRT, and the new Pallisade XRT Pro.
Although it’s a concept, Hyundai said the Crater Concept is a testament to its commitment to designing future XRT vehicles that are more functional, more capable, and more emotional.
“CRATER began with a question: ‘What does freedom look like?’ This vehicle stands as our answer,” Hyundai’s global design boss, SangYup Lee said.
The off-road SUV features Hyundai’s new Art of Steel design theme, first showcased on the THREE concept at the Munich Motor Show in September.
Hyundai said the design team was guided by one clear goal: To create a rugged and capable vehicle that’s designed to go anywhere. The Crater Concept embodies that vision with added wide skid plates, 33″ off-road tires, limb risers, rocker panels, and a roof platform.
Hyundai designed the interior for “tech-savvy adventure seekers,” with a singular design centered around a high-brow crash pad that stretches across the dashboard.
The concept also swaps the traditional infotainment setup for a head-up display that spans the entire front window, which Hyundai said includes a live rearview camera.
Hyundai’s off-roader includes a new Off-Road Controller for front and rear locking differentials, as well as a terrain selector with modes including Sand, Snow, and Mud. Other off-road features include downhill brake control, trailer brake control, a compass, and an altimeter.
Although Hyundai said it was electric, it didn’t reveal any further details about the powertrain. The off-road SUV could be a battery-electric or fuel-cell-electric vehicle.
Like the new Nexo, Hyundai’s hydrogen fuel cell vehicle, the concept features “HTWO” lamps exclusive to its FCEVs.
Earlier this week, the design team at Hyundai Design North America also introduced its new design and ideation studio codenamed “The Sandbox.” The creative design studio is set to serve as a global hub for future XRT vehicles and gear.
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