New or expanded businesses in Nevada may apply to the Director of the State Office of Energy for a property tax abatement of up to 55% for up to 20 years for real and personal property used to generate electricity from renewable energy resources including solar, wind, biomass*, fuel cells, geothermal or hydro. Generation facilities must have a capacity of at least 10 megawatts (MW), and must plan to be in operation for at least 10 years. Facilities that use solar energy to generate at least 25,840,000 British thermal units of process heat per hour can also qualify for an abatement.

There are several job creation and job quality requirements that must be met in order for a project to receive an abatement. Depending on the population of the county or city where the project will be located, the project owners must:

• Employ a certain number of full-time employees during construction, a percentage of whom must be Nevada residents
• Ensure that the hourly wage paid to the facility's employees and construction workers is a certain percentage higher than the average statewide hourly wage
• Make a capital investment of a specified amount in the state of Nevada
• Provide the construction workers with health insurance that includes coverage for the worker's dependents

Note that this exemption does not apply to residential property. A facility that is owned, operated, leased or controlled by a governmental entity is also ineligible for this abatement.

History
This abatement has gone through revisions since its original inception. Most significantly, AB 522, signed in May 2009, raised the capacity minimum for eligible projects from 10 kilowatts (kW) to 10 MW. It also increased the abatement from 50% for 10 years to 55% for 20 years, extended it to additional technologies, and increased the qualification requirements to ensure that incentivized projects result in more high quality jobs. These changes took effect on July 1, 2009. AB 522 also created a sales and use tax abatement for renewable energy producers.

*Biomass is defined as any organic matter that is available on a renewable basis, including, without limitation, agricultural crops and agricultural wastes and residues; wood and wood wastes and residues; animal wastes; municipal wastes; and aquatic plants.