Ormat, the world’s largest geothermal developer, shifted its business into the solar market in 2009 and used its power plant construction expertise to make solar PV (or CSP) plants in Israel.
For the last few years, many CSP developers collaborated with natural gas and coal operators to build hybrid solar (or fossil) plants in scope to decrease the installed cost of solar as well as enhance fossil generation.
Earlier at the National Clean Energy Summit in Las Vegas, a group of businesses and policy leaders unveiled the curtains from the world’s first solar-geothermal power plant. The plant will offer a 24-MW facility that combines 80,000 polycrystalline PV modules with traditional hydrothermal technology.
Enel, one of the largest power plant developers in the world, will construct the project. However, Ormat is planning for the cost-cutting. Therefore, it will utilise PV technology. Enel will also develop a hybrid concentrating solar power-geothermal “test plant” in the location near its counterpart.
Steven Chu, the energy secretary at a press conference, said that it’s essential to look for everything if you are going to utilise renewable energy which will possibly be the future source for new technology.
The conference headed by the world’s renowned Nevada Senator Harry Reid, Center for American Progress CEO John Podesta, Enel Green Power’s Francesco Venturini, and Bombard Renewable Energy’s Chris Brooks, focused on problems associated with jobs. They said that it is significant to set up a consistent federal policy that can enhance job opportunities in the emerging sector. According to them, the solar-geothermal plant will also provide 250 jobs that will be mainly related to construction.
Senator Reid said that there might be uncertainty on the federal level. Still, the Democrats will try to push and convince the importance of clean energy since it has revolutionised the world. Many countries are ready to embrace such incredible power.
