GE to supply equipment for first commercial US integrated solar power and wind energy hybrid project

GE Renewable Energy has been selected by Juhl Energy to supply equipment for the first integrated solar-wind hybrid power project to be located Red Lake Falls, in the US state of Minnesota.

The hybrid solar-wind design has the ability to produce power under situations of peak summer times and also during winters when winds are high.

This is community based project and will produce 4.6MW of power. It will include two 2.3-116 wind turbines from GE and will also include 1MW of solar power conversion equipment to be supplied by GE’s Current business.

The project will use GE’s Wind Integrated Solar Energy (WiSE) technology platform and it will integrate the solar panels through the wind turbines’ converter directly so that both wind and solar will share the balance of plant and can increase the system’s net capacity by 3-4%, while increasing annual production by up to 10%.

GE claims that the global market for hybrid solar-wind market could grow as much as $1.47bn by 2024. The US market for the hybrid system was valued at $195m in 2015 and it is expected to grow more than $300m by 2024.

GE Renewable Energy Onshore Wind president & CEO Pete McCabe said: “By leveraging the complementary nature of wind and solar, this unique project shows how GE is driving technology innovation that will help customers deliver more renewable energy in an even more efficient manner.”

Juhl Energy CEO Dan Juhl said: “Most energy experts agree that distributed generation will play a major role in the implementation of renewable energy in the US electrical market in the years to come.

“Juhl Energy’s package design, with the GE hybrid technology, can economically blend clean, renewable energy into the grid at lower cost, plus add reliability to the system.”