Ormat commissions first two facilities of OREG 2 project in North Dakota

Ormat Technologies, Inc., the NYSE-listed U.S. subsidiary of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat, announced that two of the four facilities in the OREG 2 Recovered Energy Generation (REG) project reached commercial operation in December 2008 and January 2009.

The OREG 2 project is Ormat‘s second REG project located along the Northern Border natural gas pipeline in North Dakota, United States. The project consists of four power plants that will have a net capacity of 5.5 MW each and will convert the recovered waste heat from the exhaust of existing gas turbines at compressor sites into electricity. The remaining two facilities are scheduled to be completed by the end of 2009.

"We are very happy to bring additional power through the use of recovered energy generation technology and contribute to the important goal of emission reduction” said Dita Bronicki, Chief Executive Officer of Ormat.

The output supplied from the two facilities will be sold to Basin Electric Power Cooperative (BEPC) of Bismarck, North Dakota and will bring the total owned generating capacity of Ormat's REG portfolio to 33 MW.

The ORMAT^® REG facilities consist of ORMAT^® ENERGY CONVERTERS (OEC) based on Organic Rankine Cycle technology, which converts recovered heat to electric power without the need for any additional fuel or water. The OEC units are environmentally benign, according to Ormat, as they have no emissions of CO₂ or NOX.

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Ormat signs deal with Great River Energy

Ormat Technologies announced today that one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries had executed a new 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Great River Energy (GRE), a Minnesota cooperative corporation of Elk River, Minnesota, for electricity to be produced by a new ORMAT Recovered Energy Generation (REG) facility.

The new facility will have a net capacity of 5.3 MW and will convert the recovered waste heat from the exhaust of an existing gas turbine into electricity. The turbine is located at a compressor station along the Northern Border natural gas pipeline and Ormat has already secured the rights to the waste heat for the new facility.

Ormat CEO Dita Bronicki said, "We are encouraged by the increased attention to energy efficiency and the confidence in our REG technology. Using clean solutions such as Ormat's REG units is a win-win strategy all around, providing both parties with one of the cleanest, fastest and most cost efficient ways to generate power while reducing carbon emissions. While each of our REG power plants along the Northern Border pipeline is only about 5 MW, when combining the opportunities along this one pipeline alone, we are generating power equivalent to the capacity of one of our 50 MW geothermal power plants."

Ormat expects the plant to be commissioned in 2009 or early 2010. With the addition of this new REG facility, Ormat will owns a total of nine units with an installed capacity of nearly 50 MW along the Northern Border pipeline which are currently under operation and under various stages of construction. This is the first Ormat plant in Minnesota, a state that has enacted a Renewable Portfolio Standards program. The Ormat REG facility consists of an ORMAT Energy Converter (OEC) based on Organic Rankine Cycle technology, which converts recovered heat to electric power without the need for any additional fuel or water. The OEC unit is environmentally benign, as it has no emissions of CO2 or NOX.