The existing geosolar Stillwater plant near Enel Green Power’s new Wynn solar project. Credit: Enel Green Power North America[/caption]
Wynn Las Vegas has signed a PPA with renewable energy company Enel Green Power North America to buy energy from a 27-MW solar facility under construction in Nevada.
“The energy produced by the new facility will be used to meet up to 75% of Wynn Las Vegas’s current peak-power requirements, which is the largest percentage of renewable energy used by any resort in Las Vegas,” according to Enel Green Power North America (EGPNA).
Known as the Wynn Solar Facility at Stillwater, the standalone plant in Churchill County, Nevada, is also expected to provide 100% of the power for Wynn Las Vegas’s planned Paradise Park. Last October, the Las Vegas Review-Journal described Paradise Park as “a Carnivale-based plan with a nightly parade of floats on an hourglass-shaped lagoon surrounded with a mile-long boardwalk.” It will also feature a 47-story hotel.
The solar facility site is located next to the existing Stillwater triple hybrid facility, which EGPNA describes as the first plant in the world to combine binary geothermal power with solar photovoltaic and solar thermal.
EGPNA called the partnership with Wynn an industry first for a gaming operator in Nevada. In 2016, several large Las Vegas resorts, including Wynn, announced plans to begin purchasing more renewable power for their buildings and bright lights. Solar farms in Nevada and California had plenty of cheap power to sell them. However, the resorts had to battle with regulators and the state utility NV Energy, as The Guardian’s Dan Hernandez reported at the time.
Wynn Las Vegas, MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, and other major customers successfully filed to withdraw from NV Energy — for a price. Collectively, the fees the companies paid to be able to purchase energy on the open market added up to more than $170 million.
The new solar project that will help power Wynn and Paradise Park should begin producing electricity by the first half of 2018, according to EGPNA.
Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval called the deal a meaningful step in Nevada’s energy future. “The partnership between Enel Green Power and Wynn’s Paradise Park is the merging of the Silver State’s growing renewable energy industry and gaming, one of our state’s oldest industries,” his public statement said.
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