Purple Sage Energy Center in last stage of approval

On June 12, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that it had issued the final Environmental Impact Statement for the Purple Sage Energy Center, a project located in the Pahrump Valley but over the border in Clark County.

The Purple Sage Energy Center, formerly known as the Golden Currant Solar Project, is proposed as a 400-megawatt photovoltaic development by Nobel Solar, LLC. The solar facility is planned to be built on 4,534 acres of public lands off Tecopa Springs Road, south of Highway 160. The project has been in the works for roughly four years and is now nearing the last stages of authorization.

“If approved, the applicant could develop an energy facility with integrated battery storage and transmission line connection to the Trout Canyon substation,” the announcement from BLM stated.

As with many other commercial solar projects in the area, the Purple Sage Energy Center is drawing criticism, particularly from Pahrump residents and environmental conservation groups. One such group, Basin and Range Watch, issued its own news release following the BLM’s announcement.

“The Purple Sage Energy Center project has been advancing toward approval since 2022 with numerous surveys happening for biological and cultural resources. Shortly after the Draft Environmental Impact Statement was released in January 2025, most of the large-scale ‘renewable’ energy projects planned for public lands in the region were placed on an administrative review by the Trump administration’s Interior Department, which set their schedules back for over one year.

“Many of the projects have now been cleared to move forward at this point and a total of five projects have been either built or planned for this region,” Basin and Range Watch continued. “The project footprint has been modified and reduced over the past four years to lessen impacts to the region’s important resources, but they will still need to grade 30 percent of the project site and use up to 900-acre feet of groundwater for construction.”

Basin and Range Watch co-founder Kevin Emmerich said the project stands to negatively affect many valuable desert assets and resources.

“The Purple Sage Energy Center would impact Ice Age fossils, rare plants, desert tortoises, groundwater, mesquite woodlands and the Old Spanish National Historic Trail,” Emmerich asserted. “Conservation of natural and cultural resources has taken a back seat to the BLM’s infrastructure plans for the region. In 2023, Basin and Range Watch and others nominated a 140,000-acre area of Critical Environmental Concern as a conservation alternative to the energy plans of the region but it was never considered by the BLM.”

For those who wish to make their opposition of the Purple Sage Energy Center known, a 30-day protest period is now open and will continue until July 13.

Additional information can be found in the BLM National NEPA Register at tinyurl.com/mr3rck99. Protest instructions are available on the BLM Filing a Plan Protest website at tinyurl.com/dp7v7kjj.

For more information, contact BLM Project Manager Jessica Headen at 702-515-5000 or BLM_NV_SND_EnergyProjects@blm.gov

Contact reporter Robin Hebrock at rhebrock@pvtimes.com