The Chinese Try to Harness the Nevada Sun

Laughlin, Nev., is a dusty outpost 113 miles southeast of Las Vegas, a town of 7,300 people, 11 casinos, and not much else. With many citizens in dire economic straits and facing foreclosure, Laughlin’s civic leaders had long hoped to attract new businesses. Nothing worked until China’s ENN Group came to town on the arm of U.S. Senator Harry Reid with a plan to build a $5 billion solar energy complex on a barren plot of land on Laughlin’s outskirts.

ENN, based in the northern city of Langfang, is buying 14 square miles of land from Clark County for $4.5 million, less than one-eighth of the $38.6 million assessors told the county the property was worth last year. The company plans to manufacture solar panels on the site and then operate a solar farm generating 700 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 175,000 homes. It says the construction of the complex would put 2,505 people to work. County officials say a statute allows governments to sell property for development at a below-market rate if the project creates jobs.

“On a scale of 1 to 10—10 being the most important—this is an 11,” says Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak. “It’s desert and sand and tumbleweeds and dirt out there for miles. This could be an enormous economic boon.” Reid introduced Sisolak to ENN executives after touring the company’s headquarters with a group of senators last year.

The deal comes at a time of escalating tension between the U.S. and China over the solar panel industry, with Washington accusing China of dumping cheap components manufactured with the help of government subsidies in the U.S. According to the Department of Commerce, the number of panels imported to the U.S. from China jumped 247 percent from 2009 to 2011. That’s caused prices to plunge and at least a dozen U.S. solar companies to declare bankruptcy, fire workers, or close plants in the past two years, according to the Coalition for American Solar Manufacturing. Last month, under pressure to curb the unfair trade practices, the Obama administration imposed preliminary tariffs ranging from 2.9 percent to 4.73 percent on some Chinese solar equipment.