Progress in the renewable-energy industry is often measured in outsized terms—the best, the biggest, the fastest and the cheapest. When it comes to packing a wallop of solar potential, no place does it like Nevada.


Recently, a solar facility outside of Las Vegas reached a milestone of its own. The Copper Mountain Solar 3 project in Boulder City, Nev., co-owned by Sempra U.S. Gas & Power and Consolidated Edison Development, is an addition to the Copper Mountain 1 and 2 substations, already one of the largest thin-film photovoltaic (PV) solar-energy plants in the United States.


In April, the project restated its status as “one of the biggest,” with the installation of its one millionth solar PV module. Cupertino Electric installed the module with the help of project management company Amec Foster Wheeler.


The fixed tilt, ground-mount array sits on 1,400 acres. The 250-megawatt (MW) project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 80,000 homes. Combined with the Copper Mountain Solar 1 and 2 projects, the entire complex is capable of generating more than 450 MW of power and electrifying 142,000 homes. The combined panels also boast some other outsized features, including a 11/2-mile, 230-kilovolt transmission line, also constructed by Cupertino Electric, connecting Copper Mountain Solar 1 and 2.


Developers are equally proud of the contribution the project has made to the local economy. Cupertino Electric boasts that during the peak of the project’s two-year construction schedule, Copper Mountain Solar 3 created approximately 500 solar jobs.