The White Pine Pumped Storage will provide Nevada with an important, versatile, and economical tool for supporting reliable power supply and grid stability as the state modernizes its electrical system and transitions to greater reliance on variable and intermittent resources like solar and wind energy. Socioeconomic studies and analyses can be found in Exhibit E, Appendix I of the Final License Application.

Development (2020-2025):

• Income from lodging, gas, dining, and other local spending by project development support staff.

• Employment of local expertise in project development support wherever possible.

• Revenue to the County through taxes, water use agreement, and potential revenue from other agreements that may be negotiated.

Construction (2026-2030):

• Approximately 500+ full-time construction jobs for a period of 5-7 years, with the significant indirect economic benefits that come with local spending.

Operation (2030-):

• Over 35 permanent full-time jobs in the Ely/McGill area, with the indirect economic benefit to the community that those jobs bring.

• Substantial tax revenue to White Pine County long into the future. Exact revenue will be determined as several factors are clarified, including tax treatment, central vs. local assessment, eligibility for tax abatements, and others.

Water needs will vary across the different project phases. Construction: requirement estimated to be 300 to 900 acre-feet per year for five years.

Initial Fill: approximately 5,000 acre-feet, drawn over 12-18 months

Evaporation Makeup: 500-750 acre-feet per year for the life of the project.

White Pine Waterpower, LLC has negotiated and signed a water supply agreement with White Pine County. The County was previously granted water permits for over 20,000 acre-feet per year for industrial beneficial uses and economic development— specifically, for the previously planned coal plants. An agreement to license water to an area mining company ended in 2021. The County's water permits cannot be held indefinitely and could become subject to cancellation by the State Engineer. To ensure that water permits are preserved, those rights need to be put to use for economic development.

The water this project would require during the 5 to 7-year construction and initial fill phase is less than half of one year's worth of County water rights. The water this project would require over its first 50 years would represent about 3% of the rights granted to the County for economic development (in other words, 3% of what one of the coal plants would have used over the same time).

Click here for more information.

Water for the project would likely come from groundwater. Initial reservoir fill and make-up water to replace losses from seepage, leakage, and evaporation are anticipated to be drawn from groundwater under permits currently held by White Pine County. The County's water rights under previously granted permits in this area exceed 20,000 AF per year, which substantially exceeds the one-time fill requirement for the proposed Project. Use of water for the Project was formally approved in a Water Supply and Option Agreement by the White Pine Board of County Commissioners on February 24, 2021. Under this Water Supply and Option Agreement, the County is leasing sufficient water resources to allow for the initial fill of the Project and has optioned a portion of an existing water right for purchase by the Project to use for long-term make-up water.

The effect of using the White Pine County water rights for the initial fill was evaluated by the Nevada Division of Water Resources as part of the change application process for Water Permit Nos. 72729 and 72728. A change to the point of diversion and place of use for both these water permits was filed with the State Engineer, which formally approved the change on September 22, 2022. The newly changed water rights, Permit Nos. 91444 and 91445, are now permitted to allow for diversion from a proposed new wellfield to the south of the lower reservoir.

We anticipate there would be little or no impact of water withdrawal. As part of the water permit change application process, the State Engineer evaluated adverse impacts to other groundwater rights and/or resources. Subsequently, the water permit change applications were approved, and no formal protests were filed, thus the State Engineer determined that there was no adverse effect to the existing groundwater resources. The initial fill will be further studied in a planned hydrogeologic study. Based on the range of analytical outcomes for alluvial groundwater flow in the Steptoe Basin, and scheduling flexibility for the pumping effort required to fill the Lower Reservoir, the Project is anticipated to cause little change to existing groundwater flows and uses. The impact of water withdrawal will be modeled to ensure minimal to zero impact on nearby water users.

Without a water source, the project cannot be developed, and the benefits it would bring could not be realized. Under the agreement with White Pine County, White Pine Waterpower will pay the County for the future right to use a modest amount of the County's water for construction and reservoir fill and future evaporation makeup, even though none will be used at all until construction begins— estimated in approximately 2025. The rights will revert to the County if the water is not used. Furthermore, the 750 acre-feet-annual (AFA) that would be purchased are irrevocably tied to use only at the project. Any other use resulting in the 750 AFA would immediately revert to the County. In sum, the County agreement to sell water to the project helps the County hold on to its water rights while also earning revenue at no risk to the County.

We anticipate the project will have minimal effects to NNR. The project is located adjacent to the HiLine Branch towards McGill and will not impact trains to the Southwest. Most NNR excursion train trips head in the opposite direction of the project southwest through two tunnels and up mountain grades through Robinson Canyon toward the Ruth Copper Mining District. Several trains each week during the summer season head north out to the Steptoe Valley on the HiLine Branch toward McGill and the proposed Project Boundary. This includes the Great Basin Star Train excursions and the Sunset, Stars, and Champagne excursions. The Great Basin Star Train is scheduled once a week for 18 weeks during the 2024 season. The Sunset, Stars, and Champagne excursion is scheduled twice a week for 18 weeks during the 2024 season. The project has committed to ensuring all exterior lighting is dark skies compliant and will not impact the train excursion experience.

During construction, significant activity would be around the lower reservoir area off Highway 93 and the upper reservoir site. This would primarily involve earth-moving activity. Underground activity would consist primarily of tunneling. Mitigation of construction-related impacts will be subject to rigorous regulatory and licensing review by the FERC and under the NEPA process for the project, as well as the results of discussion with White Pine County officials.

White Pine Waterpower anticipates that most heavy equipment required for construction will be transported in an initial mobilization to the reservoir work areas and remain there for the duration of the construction phase. This will help isolate construction activities to the immediate vicinity of the project and minimize excessive disruptions to the community.

After construction, the project would produce no emissions, noise, or light pollution and minimal traffic limited to required maintenance activities. Since the upper reservoir is set inside a natural basin or “ravine”, it will not be visible from either the Steptoe Valley or Duck Creek Valley from most visual angles. In terms of the visual impact of the project structures, the lower reservoir embankment would be set against the hillside and landscaped to reduce visual impact.

The primary traffic to the Project would be during crew changes for staffing the powerhouse, accessed from Highway 93. Visits to the upper reservoir site would be limited to maintenance personnel and minimal.

No. The reservoirs would be subject to significant daily fluctuations in water levels, and for safety reasons, will not be used for recreation purposes.

Protecting sage grouse and their habitat is a high priority for White Pine Waterpower, residents and state and federal permitting agencies. Field surveys were commenced in spring 2021 and will continue to get an up-to-date and accurate understanding of sage grouse habitat and lek use in the project's vicinity. Greater Sage-grouse may be temporarily disturbed due to noise and increased human presence, noise during construction activities, and an increase of vehicle travel on access roads. The presence of additional transmission lines may increase perching opportunities for avian predators which may in turn result in increased predation on Greater Sage-Grouse. Small portions of the upper reservoir area is within priority sage grouse habitat. A section of the proposed transmission line route also goes through sage grouse habitat.

Topography and vegetation cover will reduce the view of Project facilities from Greater Sage-Grouse leks. In addition, White Pine Waterpower will minimize the height and number of tall structures at the upper reservoir and will install raptor perching arrestor devices on the Project transmission lines to limit predation opportunities. White Pine Waterpower is currently developing a Greater Sage-Grouse Mitigation Plan in coordination with BLM, NDOW, and other stakeholders. Any resulting constraints, conditions, or mitigation measures will inform the next step of project development.

Given the relatively small footprint of the Project, White Pine Waterpower believes that the impacts of the Project can be mitigated and will be largely compatible with the existing resource management plan requirements to protect sage grouse and sage grouse habitat in the region.

The project will serve Nevada residents. As for a specific market, a project of this type and size requires a large utility with a significant power demand and a substantial need for energy storage. The energy needed for pumping water would be drawn from any number of sources—solar, wind, geothermal— feeding energy into the grid at times or in amounts when it is less in demand. The power produced by the plant would go to serve demand statewide.

This project is not the type of project from which various amounts of energy can be sold to different parties. The White Pine Pumped Storage Project will act as giant battery that balances power on the statewide high-voltage system. During peak electric demand periods, the project would produce up to 20 times the peak demand of Mt. Wheeler Power—the utility that serves Ely. The plant also needs up to 1,000 MW of pumping energy for extended periods. For these reasons, Mt. Wheeler would not represent a market for this type of project.

The project will, however, need to purchase a substantial amount of power from Mt. Wheeler Power for its general facility operations (air conditioning, lighting, etc.) which is commonly referred to as station service power.

While White Pine County is not a major electric load center, it is strategic in the electric grid because of existing and planned transmission lines. Robinson Summit Substation, into which this project will interconnect, will be a major "hub" connecting the state's largest transmission lines. The Project represents a unique energy storage and supply opportunity for Nevada and the greater region. There are few feasible means of providing energy storage of the scale and duration needed as the electric grid evolves toward a carbon-free future. Pumped storage projects have tremendous value in storing energy produced by wind and solar and returning that energy to the grid on a real-time, as-needed basis. The proposed location of the White Pine Pumped Storage Project site has exceptional characteristics to meet this need. The site has a unique combination of favorable topography, access to a water source, geologic features appropriate for tunneling to house Project facilities, and proximity along a designated transmission corridor route to a substation large enough to accommodate the Project.

Click here for more information.

There are several different types of pumped storage plants. "Open loop" pumped storage uses existing rivers or lakes as reservoirs. "Closed-loop" pumped storage uses two new artificial reservoirs and does not impact natural waterways. White Pine Pumped Storage is a closed-loop project. As energy storage facilities, there is an efficiency loss in the round-trip cycle of pumping and generating. Newer pumped storage plants like White Pine Pumped Storage typically have a 78-80% round-trip efficiency.

As the cost of chemical energy storage (batteries) has come down, utilities have begun using them for energy storage, and are expected to increase significantly. However, utilities' interest in the better-established pumped storage technology continues because of its substantial advantages over battery storage. These advantages include the following: • Lower cost at longer duration (anything longer than 6 hours) • A much longer lifespan (80+ years for pumped storage vs. 5-15 years for batteries

Unlike batteries, no loss of efficiency or storage capacity for pumped storage no matter how frequently the plant cycles or how deep the discharge is (i.e., how low the water level gets in the upper reservoir).

Operating on a relatively small footprint, the project will be a vibrant complement to wind and solar generation, capable of storing electricity generated by wind and solar when electricity demand is low and returning electricity to the grid when demand is peaking.

Housing is in short supply in the Ely area. A wide range of options, including both temporary and permanent housing options will be considered to accommodate the construction workforce. The project team will work closely with the local city and county on the implementation of a workforce housing plan that will complement the community’s development plans.

No, there are no agreements with private property owners on the Steptoe Valley side or the Duck Creek side of the project to place any construction-related or permanent project facilities on their land.

No. There is no intention or plan to place a man camp in the Duck Creek valley.