The Return Of The Esmeralda 7 Solar Power Project

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Try as he might, US President Donald Trump just can’t put the solar industry to bed. Take the proposed Esmeralda 7 project in Esmeralda County, Nevada, for example. The sprawling cluster of seven new solar power plants seemed all but dead in the water last fall, and yet signs of life are glimmering again thanks to Trump himself.

Esmeralda 7 And The Greenlink Connection

There is a lot to unpack in the Esmeralda 7 suitcase, beginning with Nevada’s Republican Governor Joe Lombardo — who is seeking re-election this year — and Greenlink, a new transmission line that will connect solar power plants in sparsely populated Esmeralda County with electricity-thirsty points elsewhere.

Lombardo is among the rare Republican elected officials willing to defend renewable energy in public. He rose to the occasion last July, when Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued new rules that would have made construction of Greenlink difficult if not impossible. Lombardo objected by letter to Burgum, making the economic case for Greenlink, wind, solar, and energy storage, too.

“Without the energy to support important and burgeoning sectors of the State’s economy which also propel key industry priorities for this Administration, Nevadans will miss out on the jobs and economic benefits that flow to them,” Lombardo emphasized, citing mining and data centers as two industries pushing the demand for renewable energy in his state.

Buh-Bye, Esmeralda 7 (Or Not)

So much for that. Despite Lombardo’s letter-writing skills, in October Secretary Burgum issued an order that seemed to cancel all seven projects in the Esmeralda cluster. As catalogued by the Nevada Independent, that includes:

• Lone Mountain Solar: 1 gigawatt of solar and 500 megawatts of battery storage.
• Nivloc Solar: 500 megawatts of solar and battery storage.
• Smoky Valley Solar: 1 gigawatt of solar and battery storage.
• Red Ridge 1 Solar: 600 megawatts of solar and battery storage.
• Red Ridge 2 Solar: 600 megawatts of solar and battery storage.
• Esmeralda Energy Center: 1 gigawatt solar facility and battery storage system.
• Gold Dust Solar: 1.5-gigawatt solar facility and 1 gigawatt battery storage system.

Burgum’s order prompted much hand-wringing around the Intertubes. However, on closer inspection, Burgum did not cancel any of the Esmeralda 7 projects outright (here’s that link again). At the very least, though, Burgum threw a significant monkey wrench into the process. Instead of undergoing environmental review as a single, unified project under the Esmeralda 7 umbrella, Burgum required each of the seven projects to submit to a review individually.

Solar Power Lives To Fight Another Day (Maybe?)

Before the end of the year, Lombardo found another opportunity to lobby for clean energy, which he described during an appearance on GangboX, a podcast produced by the Southern Nevada Building Trades Union.

During his appearance, Lombardo was asked about the shutdown of energy projects in Nevada. He hinted that he had “‘some movement in that space in the last two weeks’ following an ‘audience with Donald Trump’ while in Washington, D.C. in November,” noted the news organization Nevada Current, which reported the GangboX exchange on February 18.

As described by Nevada Current reporter Dana Gentry, Lombardo told GangboX that he briefed Trump about the growing role of renewable energy in the Nevada economy. Apparently he received a positive response.

“I walked him through it, and he goes, ‘Okay, sounds good. I’m glad you brought it up. I’ll call Burgum and tell him it’s allowable in Nevada,’” Lombardo explained.

Yes, Maybe, Maybe Not

Lombardo also made sure to memorialize his meetup with Trump on X (formerly Twitter), underscoring his support for clean power in general and solar in particular. “When it comes to renewable energy, Nevada relies on solar more than any other state,” Lombardo enthused on X, as cited by Nevada Current.

“That’s why I spoke directly with President Trump about potential federal policies that could impact our solar industry. Since then, we’ve worked with his Administration to make sure Nevada’s renewable energy supply is protected and stays strong,” he added.

In the February 18 report, Gentry also listed three solar power projects in Nevada (Libra Solar, Boulder Solar III, and Dry Lake East) that are continuing to move through the pipeline. None of those projects are part of Esmeralda 7, but on November 26 EE News cited anonymous Interior Department officials who said that the Esmeralda Energy Center is once again under “active review” along with five other utility-scale solar projects.

That sounds vaguely promising, although the state of Virginia tells a cautionary tale. Virginia is home to the biggest offshore wind farm in the US, the forthcoming Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project. Trump ran rampant through the domestic offshore wind industry last year, but CVOW was untouchable — as long as Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin remained in office, that is.

Youngkin was a strong supporter of CVOW, so it appears the White House was willing to avoid a political embarrassment for a high-ranking Republican. Youngkin was also term limited, though. His seat was up for grabs in the November 2025 election cycle, and Democrat Abigail Spanberger won it. Just a few weeks later, Burgum abruptly imposed a stop-work order on CVOW and four other offshore wind projects in states held by Democratic governors.

Next Steps For The US Solar Industry

If Lombardo loses his bid for re-election, Trump and Burgum will be free to pull the plug on Nevada’s solar industry again. Or not, as the case may be. When Lombardo announced his re-election campaign last fall, statewide media had him at a neck-and-neck race against one leading contender in the Democratic primary cycle, Nevada State Attorney General Aaron D. Ford. More recently, the polling shows a slight edge for Lombardo.

Keep an eye on those polls after Democratic voters select their candidate on June 9. That leaves about five months of mano-a-mano campaigning until the General Election in November, and much depends on Lombardo’s ability to distance himself from Trump.

That’s going to be a tough row to hoe. Writing for the Nevada Current in December, columnist Hugh Jackman described an ominous pattern in Nevada elections. Republican candidates for Congress continued to score victories in non-competitive races in the years after Trump took office for the first time, but when the competition is stiff, though, the Republican candidates wilt.

“Since Donald Trump came down his escalator in 2015 and successfully launched a hostile takeover of the Republican Party in the U.S., there have been 16 competitive races for Congress in Nevada. Republicans have lost all of them,” Jackman observed.

“And in all the competitive races for federal office that Republicans have lost, Nevada Democrats have tied those Republicans to Trump early and often,” he added. “Because it works. Nevada Democrats have a pristine track record spanning the last five campaign cycles to show for it.”

Stay tuned. Among other voting blocs, Trump enjoyed the support of independents alongside his MAGA base in the 2025 election cycle, but both have withered under the relentless glare of the Epstein scandal.

Just last night, Trump ramped up the distract-o-meter to 11 on the dial with a massive bombardment of key targets in Iran. That’s not going to work, either. The US public has finally sunk its teeth into the idea that a convicted felon and credibly accused rapist occupies the Oval Office, and every attempt at deflection is just another admission of guilt.

Photo: Location of the proposed Esmeralda Energy Center, one of seven solar power projects in Nevada formerly under the umbrella of the Esemeralda 7 cluster (screenshot cropped, courtesy of BLM).