The 2 MW Stillwater Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Project is currently under construction in Fallon, Nevada.
The renewable specialist starts its collaboration with two US National Laboratories NREL and INL to use empirical data from the Stillwater Geothermal/Solar Project.
The parties will jointly explore and quantify the benefits of integrating renewable energy technologies at the same site. The agreement paves the way for further innovation into next-generation geothermal facilities.
Enel Green Power (EGP), the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and Idaho National Laboratory (INL), under the oversight of the U.S. Department of Energy Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) have signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with the goal of exploring the potential of EGP’s innovative Stillwater hybrid power plant.
The 2 MW Stillwater Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) Project is currently under construction in Fallon, Nevada and, upon completion, it will operate alongside the existing 33 MW Stillwater geothermal power plant, which is already paired with a 26 MW photovoltaic facility. This is the first hybrid plant in the world able to bring together at the same site the continuous generating capacity of binary-cycle, medium-enthalpy geothermal power with solar photovoltaic and solar thermodynamic.
Under the agreement, the integration of geothermal and CSP to generate power will be studied over the coming year. EGP, NREL, INL and the GTO will work together to model the combination of geothermal and CSP systems, validating simulated results with real-world data from the Stillwater facility. The fruits of this work will be used to explore and quantify the potential benefits of different operating strategies and integration schemes, with the goal of opening doors for the development of future hybrid renewable energy facilities.
Construction at the Stillwater CSP plant began in April 2014, and is expected to be completed within the third quarter of this year. The concentrating solar panels field extends over 21 acres of property, just adjacent to the geothermal and photovoltaic plants.
“The CSP addition at Stillwater represents an exciting leap forward for renewables” stated Francesco Venturini, Enel Green Power CEO “This project is an important example of how our team in cooperation with outstanding partners, such as NREL and INL, can develop and deploy innovative projects, whose advanced solutions will have far-reaching applications for our portfolio and for the whole renewable energy industry.”
Innovation is a key component of EGP growth strategy and it is focused on enhancing plant performance, employing new technologies, as well as integrating renewable energy in human settlements.
Enel Green Power is the Enel Group company fully dedicated to the development and management of renewable energy sources at the international level, with operations in Europe and the Americas. The company generated over 29 billion kWh in 2013 from water, sun, wind and the Earth’s heat - enough to meet the energy needs of more than 10 million households and avoid the emission of approximately 16 million tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Enel Green Power is a world leader in the sector thanks to its well-balanced generation mix, providing generation volumes well over the sector average. As of June 30th, 2014, the company has an installed capacity of approximately 9,150 MW from a mix of sources including wind, solar, hydroelectric, geothermal, and biomass. The company has approximately 750 plants operating in 16 countries in Europe and the Americas.
Enel Green Power in USA - Enel Green Power (EGP) operates in North America through Enel Green Power North America, Inc. (EGP-NA), which owns and operates over 90 plants in 21 U.S. States and two Canadian provinces with a total installed capacity of around 2,000 MW. Such a capacity base is diversified across four generation technologies, namely wind, geothermal, solar and hydro.
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