A nanotechnology campus coming to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center could help change the culture of Northern Nevada, the center’s partner-broker Lance Gilman said earlier this month on “Nevada Newsmakers.”
Another project coming to the industrial park will encompass 60,000 acres, he said. That, by far, would be the largest facility in the 104,000-square-acre industrial park just east of the Reno-Sparks area.
The Tesla gigafactory, considered a massive construction project, sits on a 3,000-acre site at the park. About 2,000 acres of that includes hilly land for a buffer zone that is not developed.
The Tahoe Reno Industrial Center, mostly in Storey County, has been billed as a largest industrial park in the North America.
Gilman's latest development is the size of a small city — 60,000 acres, or 94 square miles, is about the size of Palm Springs, Calif. Carson City is 157 square miles.
“It is incredible, and it will close right after the first of the year,” said Gilman of the project.
He could not be more specific about the 60,000-acre project or the nanotechnology project because of agreements with companies. He described the nanotechnology project as 1,200 acres.
“They have roots in Stanford and Silicon Valley, Calif., from Dubai, and I’ll just say they are a nano-project technology,” Gilman said. “We are talking about a 1,200-acre research and development campus focused on nanotechnology.”
The nanotechnology site will be a boon to scientific research at the nearby UNR, Gilman said.
“With Google and Tesla and Switch (at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center) and then you add in a nanotechnology campus, we are changing the entire culture of Northern Nevada,” Gilman said.
“Our universities are going to bloom,” he said. “Some of the things that are coming for our children and grandchildren are unimaginable.”
Products with nanotechnology add strength to construction materials such as concrete and steel. It is also being used by U.S. military to develop more efficient batteries, more-powerful fuel cells, more receptive solar cells and more-affordable titanium metal, according to Military & Aerospace Electronics website.
The U.S. military is also developing a thin, lightweight and bulltproof body suit for soldiers through nanotechnology, according to Military & Aerospace Electronics.
“Nano products are a product that are multiple times stronger than steel and very lightweight and thin," Gilman said. "They have military applications. They have commercial applications.”
Buildings can be more massive with nanotechnology, Gilman said.
"One of the things that was explained to me was if you want to know about nanotechnology, skyscrapers are limited by the weight the elevator can be pulled by the cables. So let's say that is 100 stories. Nano technologies can triple the pull weight of the elevators."
Ray Hagar is a retired political journalist from the Reno Gazette-Journal and current reporter/columnist for the Nevada Newsmakers podcast and website, nevadanewsmakers.com. Follow Ray on Twitter at @RayHagarNV.