Rachel Dahl
The Churchill County Museum officially opened its new permanent exhibit last Friday, Green Energy, in Churchill County.
According to Museum Director Mel Glover, during COVID Enel, the Italian-owned green energy company that owned geothermal and solar plants in Stillwater and Salt Wells donated grant funding to build a permanent exhibit. Enel has since been sold to Ormat, but this exhibit is the culmination of that grant.
“Rae (Sottile, Museum Curator) has been researching geothermal, hydroelectricity, and solar,” Glover said. “We went out to Lahontan Reservoir, and TCID (Truckee-Carson Irrigation District) took us on a tour of the dam; we saw the equipment from the early 1900s, the new power plant, and we toured the 26-foot drop and saw the generation there.”
He explained that coming to Fallon from Wyoming, he was initially worried about the oil and coal industries but was assured those were not concerns here. However, in their research, the team learned of the early, failed oil exploration in Stillwater that eventually led to the discovery of steam and modern geothermal developments.
“We found several instances where speculators had taken pictures of oil rigs drilling exploration wells and using those to promote “land sales” speculation,” Glover said. “They would claim to hit oil, advertise bond for sale, and then they would split, never to be seen again.”
Churchill County was before its time in producing green energy and electrifying the community because of the Newlands Project, which was begun in 1905, leading to the production of hydroelectric power as water was released through the dam into the Carson River.
With the modern development of geothermal resources and one of the first-of-its-kind hybrid geothermal/solar projects, Churchill County officials have said for years that, on the net, the county can boast of being 100% powered by green energy.
Brian Wignall, who has twenty years of experience working with museums and is a recognized expert in his field, helped develop the exhibit and was on hand for the setup. “He helped us with the exploded view of the solar panel, and there is a piece that is bike pedals that you can crank with your hands to actually light up an LED, a fluorescent, and an incandescent light bulb and you can actually feel the [heat] difference,” Glover said.
He is particularly excited about this exhibit and encourages the community to stop by and take a look. “From the machinery built in the early 1900s that is still generating power through the hydro plants at Lahontan on the west of the valley to the high-tech machines that run the geothermal and solar plants on our eastern side, we have a community that has always embraced the renewable energy industry.”
“Come see the energy exhibit. It will be really fun for the kids and the big kids,” Glover said.
The Museum is at 1050 S. Maine Street and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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