AMARGOSA VALLEY -- Solar Millenium LLC, the company interested in building two 250-megawatt solar power plants in Amargosa Valley, has scheduled a three-day open house at the LongStreet Inn and Casino May 7-9.

Displays will illustrate the project with large, blown-up photos and a video. Representatives from the company will be on hand to answer questions and gather input.

"We're trying to reach out to the public and be part of the community," said Jason Paul Higgins, Solar Millenium project director.

The open house will last from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday and Friday, May 7-8 and from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, May 9.

Solar Millenium officials made a presentation to the Amargosa Valley Town Board March 26, describing a location on Amargosa Farm Road between Valley View Boulevard and Powerline Road.

Don Reid, Solar Millenium senior project development advisor, said the footprint of the project will be three sections by two 640-acre sections.

Solar Millenium is a German company founded in 1998 to develop and build solar power plants using curved mirrors, or parabolic troughs. Reid explained to the town board the mirrors focus light on a tube that heats fluid up to 700 degrees, which goes into a steam generator and flashes into steam that drives a turbine.

The company has three 50-megawatt projects under construction in Spain.

Reid estimates 500 megawatts of power generated at the Amargosa Valley plants will be enough to serve 150,000 homes.

"The interesting thing about these plants is that they have thermal storage. That's like the Holy Grail of the electric industry -- how do you store electricity?" Reid told the town board.

He said the company's technology will allow it to store the heat for up three and a half hours after the sun goes down and during cloudy intervals.

Solar Millenium has already signed a memorandum of understanding with NV Energy.

While he admitted the company has a rather ambitious schedule, given permitting requirements by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management -- they hope to start construction in fall 2010 and finish by spring 2013 -- there seems to be an interest in the new Obama administration in moving solar projects forward.

Gregory L. Helseth, BLM renewable energy project manager, said at a Pahrump open house last week, Solar Millenium is probably at the forefront of companies hoping to build renewable energy projects in Amargosa Valley.

BLM has a list of applicants for rights-of-way for solar energy projects but there are issues over the desert tortoise with Solar Millenium's application for 13,950 acres. Solar Millenium's plan of development is ready for an engineering review, after which the environmental impact statement would be conducted.

Reid said there would be 1,000 construction workers needed to build each plant over a three-year period. It will require 80 to 100 workers to operate each plant. Reid said they would be good-paying jobs: engineers, welders, electricians, plant operators, mechanics, mirror technicians, mirror washers, computer personnel, administrative services and plant management.

A few people in attendance at the town board meeting had questions about water.

"We use for one plant about as much as is required for a section of alfalfa, and our point is not to increase the basin usage, pumpage. Our plan is to either lease or buy water rights that are existing if we can work it out with local farmers here," Reid said.

The company is planning a wet cooling system that uses less acreage and is cheaper but requires more water.

Reid said the firm's estimate of 3,000 acre feet of water for each 250-megawatt plant, has been reduced. One acre foot is enough to fill an acre of land a foot deep, about 325,000 gallons or enough for two families of five for a year.

"We'll take the existing water they use ... and take that out of its current use and then apply it to our plant," HIggins said. "We've had conversations ongoing with the state engineer's office on this."

When a member of the audience asked how power will be transmitted, Reid said Solar Millenium plans to use an existing line to the Valley Electric substation, which will have to be upgraded, and hook into Valley Electric's new 230-kilovolt line being planned around the Spring Mountains to hook into the NV Energy grid.

"We have a very, very helpful utility in the area, Valley Electric, that's supported us in the last year and a half, helping us to get this plan to a level that we can actually implement it," Reid said.

Higgins told another resident the company is looking at products on the market to control the dust. But Higgins said the company has other logistical concerns: housing, transporting workers to Amargosa Valley, a lack of commercial businesses in the valley, a need for an upgraded medical facility in the area and security concerns.

Reid told a concerned citizen Solar Millenium will be able to provide power at a competitive rate against traditional, gas-fired power plants.

"One of the interesting aspects of our technology ... is the high cost up front, and 75 percent of our capital cost is actually going to make a solar turbine trough field and the thermal storage tanks. But this effectively is buying fuel up front for 30 years," Reid said.

"So what happens, initially, our rates may be higher than, say, conventional gas-fired power plants," Reid said. But he added, "For the next 30 years you know what the price of electricity is going to be."