Department of Energy

During the annual “State of the City” address Friday at Gold Dust West, Carson City’s Mayor Bob Crowell gave his last speech of its kind, as he is retiring at the end of this year.

The State of the City address is a way community members can be kept up to date on everything going on in our capital city, including achievements, challenges, and everything in between.

Updates included achievements such as the completion of the water pipeline from Douglas County to Carson City, the Complete Streets Project, Tesla’s grant for the Carson City School District, the first new park opening in 12 years, the opening of the Disc Golf course, and more.

Nine out of the 10 Carson City School District schools earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star certification, which signifies their buildings perform in the top 25 percent of similar facilities nationwide for energy efficiency and meets strict energy efficiency performance levels set by the EPA.

CARSON CITY — Third and fourth graders from the Empire X-Factor Enrichment class at Empire Elementary School learned the technical side of filmmaking this past semester while producing a 2-minute public service announcement on how students and teachers can further ‘Green’ efforts at their schools.

Carson City School District becomes the latest participant in an energy-awareness and savings program called powerED. McKinstry, an energy and facility services expert, will administer the two-year educational-focused program.

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval announced the appointment Friday of Bradley Crowell, as director of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, effective Dec. 12. Interim Director Kay Scherer will resume her position as Deputy Director of the Department.

Electric and natural gas rates may be lowered for NV Energy customers beginning Jan. 1, 2017 following a settlement agreement reached with state regulators, consumer groups, a coalition of local governments, Nevadans for Clean Affordable Reliable Energy and Vote Solar.

Nevada has been picked as finalist to host the Department of Energy’s new Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal laboratory, Sen. Harry Reid announced Wednesday.

LAS VEGAS — A subsidiary of defense giant Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $5 billion contract to manage a vast federal Department of Energy reservation where the nation used to conduct nuclear testing north of ...

Nevada's Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Director Leo Drozdoff will retire in September, Gov. Brian Sandoval announced Thursday.

The Department of Energy has awarded a $153.8 million contract to Portage Inc. of Idaho Falls to continue the process of cleaning up the historic uranium mine near Moab, Utah.The mine, the largest ura ...

Researchers from the University of Nevada, Reno are poised to play a key role in a project that holds the potential to unlock massive new resources of power generated from geothermal sources.

The seismic safety of nuclear facilities and systems will be examined in a new multi-year, multi-million dollar, federally funded project to study the influence of soil on building behavior during earthquakes. The University of Nevada, Reno’s world-renowned Structural Engineering Laboratories are at the center of the project that will first construct one of the world’s largest soil box/shake table systems, and then use it to investigate soil-structure interaction at a scale not previously possible.

The Department of Energy has launched investigations into two incidents over the past year where workers at the Nevada National Security Site were exposed to potential contamination while conducting nuclear weapons activities....

As part of its cultural commitment to living sustainably with the environment, The Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California is boosting its clean-energy capacity with the construction of seven new solar arrays built by Reno nonprofit Black Rock Solar. In addition to the 113 kW of power BRS built for them in 2011, BRS is currently building seven new Carson City area arrays for the tribe.

Energy and water subcommittee chairman Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., on Tuesday unveiled a 2016 spending bill for the Department of Energy that contains $70 million for various nuclear waste programs....

Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman reacted to Monday’s news that the Department of Energy will start shipping low-level nuclear waste from Tennessee for disposal in Nevada....

The Department of Energy this week is performing a test run of the route and procedures for shipping potent uranium waste from a federal laboratory in Tennessee for disposal in Nevada, sources said Monday....

Nevada U.S. Reps. Joe Heck and Dina Titus took slightly different approaches Thursday, but both bids to remove or divert $150 million in Yucca Mountain funds from a 2016 Department of Energy spending bill were killed by voice vote in the House....

Nevada Senator Harry Reid announced today that Nevada has received $2.1 million in the first phase of a competition to host the Department of Energy’s new Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal laboratory.

The FORGE laboratory, which would be dedicated to research in the next generation of geothermal energy technology, could be located in Fallon, Nev. Subject to any future restrictions in appropriation bills, this laboratory could receive up to $30 million in funding from the Department of Energy and perhaps tens of millions more.

The Department of Energy has moved to end speculation over the future of Yucca Mountain, telling Congress there are no plans in the works to put the once-proposed radioactive waste site to new use....

A 70-foot-long, 52-ton concrete bridge survived a series of 10 earthquakes in the first multiple-shake-table experiment in the University of Nevada, Reno’s new Earthquake Engineering Lab, the newest addition to the world-renowned earthquake/seismic engineering facility.

The move is complete and experiments are underway in the University of Nevada, Reno’s new Earthquake Engineering Laboratory. The College of Engineering hosted a grand opening today celebrating the new lab space in the world-renowned seismic engineering facility.

Carson City Library will welcome Dr. Leslie-Pelecky, author of The Physics of NASCAR as special guest on Tuesday, April 15th, at 6:00 p.m.

This National Library Week highlight will take place in the Bob Boldrick Theater, 851 East William Street, at the Carson City Community Center. National Library Week highlights the value of libraries, librarians and library workers in our community and brings featured programs to your library.

Chanwoo Park, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, joins a growing group of researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno who have received prestigious and highly competitive National Science Foundation CAREER awards.

The Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program award is given to junior faculty at the beginning of their academic careers who exemplify the role of teacher-scholars, placing focus on high-quality research and education activities.

Drivers of electric vehicles now have a free charging station at the Carson City Community Center, thanks to a partnership between the Governor’s Office of Energy, NV Energy and Carson City Public Works.

The newly-installed electric vehicle charging station can be found at Carson City’s Mills Park, in the parking lot between the Community Center and Aquatics Center.

Gov. Brian Sandoval has sent a second letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz requesting a meeting to talk about Department of Energy activities in Nevada. Sandoval has made it clear that he wants to speak with Moniz... Read More ›

More than a decade ago, a Western Nevada College physics professor’s dream, a desire by college students to learn about astronomy, and the Carson City community's willingness to help make dreams come true, all converged to create the Jack C. Davis Observatory.

Now, WNC and the observatory staff and volunteers have planned a stellar celebration from May 2-15 to commemorate 10 years of science and discovery in Nevada’s capital city.

RENO, Nev. – Putting the water-use-efficient and turbo-charged photosynthesis from plants such as agave into woody biomass plants such as poplar can hedge against predicted long-term increases in temperatures and reduced precipitation. It can also provide dedicated energy crops suitable for establishment on marginal land as a source of renewable biomass.

CARSON CITY – The potential viability of Yucca Mountain as a long-term repository for nuclear waste was the focus of yet another discussion in Nevada today as lawmakers serving on the Legislative Committee on High-Level Radioactive Waste heard status reports on the now defunded project.

CARSON CITY – Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., said today that any “green energy” policy that leads to higher electric bills for Nevadans who are looking for work in tough economic times is the wrong energy policy for the state.

“Nobody is anti-green,” he said. “We struggle to compete with the cost of a kilowatt hour when we talk about economic development. And economic development has something to do with jobs.”