Chipping away at a 14 percent jobless rate

The photovoltaic array at Nellis Air Force Base, northeast of Las Vegas went online in Dec. 2007 and supplies the base with about 25 percent of its electrical needs. Parts of it were built on top of a capped landfill.

Here's news for out-of-work installers in southern Utah and Las Vegas: Construction of a 50-megawatt photovoltaic plant is expected to begin next year at Flat Top Mesa, about five miles west of Mesquite. It would be one of the largest PV arrays in the country (in the neighborhood of 140,000 panels), twice as big as the PV plant at Nellis AFB.