by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 7:30 PM ET, Tue April 24, 2018
MGM Resorts International has once again established itself as a true trailblazer among Las Vegas businesses when it comes to generating power with solar.
The company just announced that it plans to power a significant portion of its 13 Las Vegas casinos with a dedicated solar panel array, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
The resort and casino giant has partnered with Invenergy to create a 100-megawatt photovoltaic array 25 miles northeast of Sin City. The facility is slated be operational by the end of 2020.
"It's really a strong, strong project. We're really proud of it," Cindy Ortega, senior vice president and chief sustainability officer for MGM Resorts, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Construction is set to begin next year on the project, which will be located on 640 acres of federal land in an area known as the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone. The zone is one of five areas in the southern part of the state, and 19 across the nation, created by the Obama administration to facilitate solar development.
There will be 336,000 solar panels at the facility, enough to power about 27,000 homes.
"Protecting the planet is a business imperative for MGM Resorts and it is our responsibility to find innovative ways where we can use clean energy to power our resorts," Jim Murren, chairman and CEO of MGM Resorts International, said in a statement. "Incorporating renewable energy into MGM's portfolio will fundamentally reduce MGM's environmental footprint."
In addition to being a boon for cleaner, more sustainable energy production, the project will create jobs for about 350 people during construction and translate into about $20 million in sales and property tax revenue, according to MGM Resorts and Invenergy.
This is not MGM Resorts' first foray into solar power usage. In 2016, MGM Resorts completed the expansion of the nation's largest contiguous rooftop solar array. The 26,000 panel, 8.3-megawatt solar array is located on the roof of the Mandalay Bay Convention Center.
In order to make this latest project a reality, MGM Resorts had to take the bold move of severing its relationship with NV Energy in 2016, which cost the gaming giant an $86.9 million exit fee. MGM Resorts provided nearly five percent of NV Energy's sales.
Wynn Resorts Ltd also pulled its retail business from NV Energy in 2016 and paid the utility $15.7 million to do so. Wynn Resorts is now partnering with Enel Green Power North America on a 20 MW solar array that will provide all of the electricity for the company's Paradise Park development.
Once complete, the new Invenergy project will power 30 percent of MGM Resorts' operations in Southern Nevada. Ultimately, the company hopes to increase that figure to 50 percent.
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