PR| 2009-12-31: The Emerging Technology Corporation (ETC) Green Division announced today they have committed to the completion of a 1Mw Green Energy baseload power plant in southern Nevada before the end of the 2010 calendar year. This facility will operate with a zero carbon footprint.
The unstable and inconsistent levels of power production from wind and solar resources impacts load balancing of electric utility grids. This same problem is the motivation for the announcement from the state of Nevada’s major public utility, NV Energy, that they will not purchase power from a solar array larger than 30Mw as they lack the technology to handle the power fluctuations caused by a passing cloud.
Baseload is the energy industry’s term for continuous, stable energy generation historically sourced from coal and natural gas burning power plants. ETC Green has partnered with several manufacturers to integrate a combination of solar, wind, biofuels, hydrogen production and storage technologies to demonstrate a solution to this major renewable energy concern.
While this initial ETC Green baseload power plant will be 1Mw, plans call for a 10Mw baseload plant within 3 years. Two of the firm’s current Green Energy Managed Sites (GEMS) will support 10Mw of baseload and 3 of the firm’s GEMS offer the opportunity for over 100Mw of baseload power with current technologies. The design and planning for much larger baseload power plants will be a major focus for the ETC Green engineers in the future.