Welcome to the mega-solar installation club, Caesars Entertainment. It was announced this past week that DSD Renewables has completed a four canopy, 6.5 MW solar portfolio for Caesars at the gaming company’s Atlantic City destinations. The solar projects will offset approximately 6 percent of energy needs for the resort properties in the area, taking energy load off the utility, Atlantic City Electric, and making energy resources available for other customers.
DSD financed and developed the installations and will serve as the long-term owner and operator of the systems. DSD is exploring additional projects with Caesars at other destinations across the U.S.
DSD and Caesars did a great job maximizing the space for solar. A bird’s eye view shows that. The completed projects include 1.7 MW and 886 kW solar garage canopies at Caesars Atlantic City, and two installations at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City—a 1.9 MW solar canopy at Harrah’s self-park garage and a 1.9 MW canopy at Harrah’s valet garage. The effort also includes a 913-kW solar rooftop system at Harrah’s Waterfront Conference Center that will be installed in early 2024.
“With our ongoing dedication to environmental sustainability and the communities we serve, our partnership with DSD plays a pivotal role in helping us adopt measures to minimize our carbon footprint,” said Eric Dominguez, SVP of Engineering & Asset Management at Caesars Entertainment. “These projects in Atlantic City exemplify our pursuit to integrate more clean energy resources into our business and implement on-site renewables across our portfolio nationally while delivering real value locally to the communities in which we operate.”
Joins MGM Resorts, Wynn Resorts
Caesars joins fellow gaming companies MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts in making giant-size commitments to solar. A total of 323,000 panels arranged across 640 acres comprise the 100 MW MGM Resorts Mega Solar Array. Also, for MGM, 26,000 panels, covering 28 acres, sit atop the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in an 8.3 MW rooftop solar array. In addition, 3,456 solar panels were installed atop the parking garage at MGM Springfield, and a 100-kW rooftop solar array helps power the facility at T-Mobile Arena.
Owned and operated by Enel Green Power North America, Inc., The Wynn Solar Facility is a standalone solar photovoltaic project located in Fallon, Nevada adjacent to the existing award-winning Stillwater hybrid facility, and shares the existing connection infrastructure with the geothermal-solar hybrid plant. The Wynn Solar Facility generates up to 27 MWdc of renewable energy, equivalent to 20 MWac, to power the resort.
Combined with the solar panels covering 103,000 square feet of the Wynn Las Vegas rooftop, enough renewable energy is generated to power 5,056 homes and eliminate 33,734 metric tons of CO2 emissions from the environment annually.
With their large rooftop footprints or access to large tracts of land for solar installations, gaming companies are unique in their ability to benefit from large amounts of solar power. What their installations are also demonstrating, however, is a desire to seek out and participate in creative financing mechanisms for renewable energy.
I mentioned DSD financed and developed the Caesars installations and will serve as the long-term owner and operator of the systems. In the case of MGM’s 100-megawatt solar array, the project with Invenergy is structured through a 20-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). In early 2021, Invenergy sold a 75 percent interest in the MGM Resorts Mega Solar Array to AEP Renewables, a subsidiary of American Electric Power, one of the nation’s largest electric companies. Invenergy Services, a subsidiary of Invenergy, is providing operations and maintenance and balance of plant services under a long-term agreement. And, as mentioned, The Wynn Solar Facility is owned and operated by Enel Green Power North America, Inc.
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