Stillwater Solar-Geothermal Hybrid Plant |
The Stillwater hybrid facility, owned and operated by Enel Green Power North America, is the world’s first renewable energy project that pairs geothermal power’s baseload generation capacity with solar power’s peak capacity. Inaugurated in May, the 26 MWe solar plant is integrated with the adjacent 33 MWe geothermal plant, which began operations in 2009, and provides energy to run the geothermal plant’s auxiliary loads.
Combining the best of two renewable energy technologies, the Stillwater hybrid facility balances the continuous generation capacity of geothermal energy with the peak capacity of solar energy. The new solar plant’s photovoltaic (PV) panels cover 240 acres next to a geothermal plant in Churchill County, Nevada.