A massive solar project proposed to be built in rural Esmeralda County with a footprint roughly the size of Las Vegas appears to have been scrapped by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Applicants were seeking to construct seven geographically contiguous utility-scale solar projects known as the Esmeralda 7, west of Tonopah and north of Dyer. The projects would have covered roughly 62,000 acres, but to accommodate rights-of-way and other necessary land, roughly 119,000 acres (185 square miles) were earmarked for the project.

First reported by Heatmap, the BLM’s National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Register on Friday listed the environmental review status for the Esmeralda 7 project as “cancelled.” The law requires federal agencies to assess the environmental effects of their proposed actions prior to making decisions. 

“The BLM wouldn’t cancel it unless the proponents wanted it cancelled,” said Shaaron Netherton, executive director of Friends of Nevada Wilderness, an environmental nonprofit that has opposed the project. “I just can’t think of any other reason why it would be cancelled.”

Combined, Esmeralda 7’s individual projects would have easily become Nevada’s largest solar project to date with a 6,200-megawatt nameplate capacity — the maximum amount of power they could have produced under ideal conditions — which would be enough to power millions of homes. Actual output was expected to be less. 

In 2023, the bureau started the process of reviewing applications for the seven solar projects. It immediately garnered pushback from conservationists and many of Esmeralda County’s roughly 720 residents who opposed the scope of the project.

“If this is built, it’s gonna be really noticeable,” Nancy Boland, a former Esmeralda County commissioner, previously told The Nevada Independent. “Your whole sense of freedom is going to be affected.”

In a follow-up call Friday, Boland said she’s “very happy” about the news, saying Esmeralda 7 would have had outsized effects on the region’s desert bighorn sheep population.

“We were really opposed to it,” she said. “With all of these things, they should slow down. We aren’t the only ones having problems with these vast decisions with these solar things.”

The sprawling Esmeralda 7 was going to be located along NV Energy’s Greenlink project, a pair of large-scale transmission corridors set to span from Las Vegas to Reno and then east to Ely. Utility-scale solar applications have popped up throughout the state as developers sought to tie in to the massive transmission line and its substations. The Greenlink project is also facing delays, as well as ongoing rising costs. 

The final environmental impact statement for Esmeralda 7 — the last step before a record of decision is issued — was set to be released at the end of April but was delayed under the Trump administration.

“While we await further clarity from BLM on its apparent decision to abruptly cancel these solar projects in the late stages of the review process, we remain deeply concerned that this administration continues to flout the law to the detriment of consumers, the grid, and America’s economic competitiveness,” Ben Norris, vice president of regulatory affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in an email. “We need more power on the grid, fast, and the solar and storage industry is ready to provide it, but we need the administration to get serious about truly achieving American energy dominance."  

The federal government remains shut down, and multiple spokespeople for the BLM did not return Friday phone calls to The Nevada Independent.

Another blow to utility-scale solar in Nevada 

The cancellation is the latest in a series of blows to the buildout of utility-scale solar in Nevada.

Under President Donald Trump’s controversial budget enacted earlier this year, utility-scale solar tax credits previously set to expire at the end of 2032 are being rolled back much sooner. Now, utility-scale projects must be under construction within the next year and completed by the end of 2027 to receive the credits.

“I believe a lot of these projects are politically not favored by Trump,” said Kevin Emmerich, co-founder of Basin and Range Watch, a conservation focused nonprofit that also opposed the Esmeralda 7 project.

The Department of the Interior, which oversees the BLM, now must specifically approve any decision relating to utility-scale solar projects, adding another layer of red tape for advancing projects.

“It doesn’t make sense monetarily for them to do this right now, with everything going on with Trump, with the lack of subsidies and the push for other types of power,” Netherton said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 2:15 p.m. on 10/10/25 to add a comment from the Solar Energy Industries Association.