Crystalline-silicon solar manufacturer SolarWorld Americas announced Thursday that it has supplied 14.2MW of its solar panels for a project in Nevada that combines both complementary solar and geothermal power generation.
The project at Patua, located about 40 miles east of Reno, has placed the solar array next to a binary geothermal production plant, with the installation set up in a way to take advantage of solar’s peak performance periods at times when the geothermal is comparatively less efficient.
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The solar plant, dedicated Thursday, features about 10MW in installed generation capacity, while the geothermal capacity is tabbed at 25MW.
Hunt Electric provided engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) services for the installation, while geothermal energy company Cyrq Energy is the project’s owner and operator. Energy produced by the plant will be sent to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD).
Shane Messer, SolarWorld Americas’ vice president for sales and marketing, said: “SolarWorld is proud to see our solar panels contributing to another innovation in the renewable-energy world. This project demonstrates that solar and geothermal are naturally fit to work together.”
