Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is in northern Nevada to attend the formal dedication of the only geothermal power plant in the world that combines geothermal energy with two kinds of solar technology.
The prime minister plans to join Gov. Brian Sandoval, Sen. Dean Heller and others at the ceremony Tuesday at the Stillwater Geothermal Plant that Enel Green Power North America Inc. built about 75 miles east of Reno.
Italy was the site of the first geothermal experiment a century ago that established the potential to harness renewable energy produced by the steam from hot water beneath the ground.
The Nevada plant is the first to utilize both solar thermal and solar panel-generated energy to supplement the geothermal power in a way that maximizes the efficiency of all three.
