Ormat, NV Energy sign 30MW geothermal power contract

Ormat Technologies, Inc. announced this week that it has signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with NV Energy, Inc. for the purchase 30 megawatts (MW) from the McGinness Hills Geothermal project, which is currently under construction.

The PPA is subject to various approvals including the approval of the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada and is projected to come on line in 2012.

When completed, the McGinness Hills project will increase the total output supplied from Ormat to NV Energy, Inc. to approximately 135 MWs, helping NV Energy to meet its renewable energy requirement. Nevada's renewable portfolio standard legislation requires 15 percent of all electricity generated in the state to be derived from new renewable energy sources by the end of 2012.

Dita Bronicki, CEO of Ormat said, “We have enjoyed a long and successful relationship with NV Energy and are grateful for its support of geothermal power. This PPA is further evidence that geothermal can supply a significant amount of power and is a preferable choice given its cost effectiveness, reliability and baseload nature.”

Ormat plans to apply for federal stimulus funds to help pay for the project, including investment tax credits or performance tax credits, and an Energy Department loan guarantee to back debt financing.

The McGinness Hills project will consist of Ormat binary energy converters that re-inject the geothermal fluid produced.

Ormat Technologies is the Reno, Nevada-based subsidiary of Israel-based Ormat Industries.

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Ormat teams with Sunday Energy on $195M joint venture for 36 MW of solar

Ormat Technologies, Inc., announced today that its Israeli subsidiary, Ormat Systems Ltd., has signed a Joint Venture Agreement (“JVA”) with Sunday Energy Ltd. (“Sunday”), an Israeli solar integration company, to construct and operate solar-photovoltaic (“PV”) energy systems in Israel with a total capacity of 36 megawatts (MW).

Under the JVA, Sunday will contribute the rights to all of its property and roofs required to develop solar energy systems above 1 MW to special purpose entities (“SPEs”). Ormat will own 70% of each SPE and will also have control of it. Under the terms of the agreement, Ormat and Sunday will act, jointly, as the engineering, procurement and construction ("EPC") contractor and the operator of each project in accordance with each company share in the SPEs .

Ormat estimates that the capital expenditure for 36 MW of solar power systems will be approximately $195 million. The electricity generated from the projects will be sold to Israel Electric Corporation Ltd. under long-term power purchase agreements (20 years) and will generate approximately $30 million in annual revenues. The SPEs expect to finance their capital expenditure with 80% Non-Recourse project finance debt.

Ormat has more than four decades of experience in the development, construction, financing and operation of hundreds of megawatts of renewable energy projects world-wide, while Sunday is one of the leading developers in the Israeli solar PV market and has experience in the design of solar systems using photovoltaic modules from various suppliers and the capabilities to obtain the necessary regulatory permits for construction and interconnection to the local grid.

Prior to entering into this JVA, Ormat has entered into an agreement with Sunday for the construction of a solar system for up to 1 MW on the roofs of its manufacturing facilities located in Yavne, Israel. The first system with a capacity of 50 kW has been installed and connected to the grid since August 2009.

The joint venture represents Ormat's commercial entry into the solar energy market and its first major development in the solar photovoltaic market in Israel.

Lucien Y. Bronicki, Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer of Ormat Technologies, said, “Ormat's commercial activity in the solar energy market is part of a strategic plan to be a leading player in renewable energy. We have a long, rich history in renewable energy that includes activity in solar energy that we believe we can leverage to bring unique benefits to this project. Our connection to solar energy goes back over 30 years to the solar pond project that we developed between 1977 and 1984. Our work on the solar pond created the technological foundation for our geothermal technology, which today positions Ormat as the industry leader. We are pleased to finally add an Israeli solar installation, to the current 1,200 MW of Geothermal and Recovered Energy power plants that Ormat has installed throughout the years. We are looking at this joint venture as an attractive business opportunity derived by the reduction in solar PV modules prices and the increase in their supply on one hand and the expected Israeli feed-in tariff for large solar PV systems on the other hand.”

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Ashalim solar thermal tender delayed again

The tender for the solar thermal power project at Ashalim, Israel has suffered its third delay, because not all the regulatory permits have been obtained, the electricity production license has not yet been written, and the financial aid criteria for the winner have been formulated, according a report in Globes.

Globes reports that the deadline for submitting bids to the joint Ministry of Finance and Ministry of National Infrastructures tender committee, headed by Deputy Accountant General Avi Dor, has been pushed back from October 21, 2009 to December 10, 2009 .

The Ministries of Finance and National Infrastructures have allowed the seven bidders who passed the prequalification stage of the tender more time to prepare their bids.

The $700-800 million build-operate-transfer (BOT) tender is for construction and operation of two solar thermal power plants with a total output of 220 Megawatts.

The seven consortia participating in the Ashalim tender are:

• Shikun u'Binui Holdings Ltd. (Housing and Construction), Solel Solar Systems Ltd., and Bateman Engineering NV;
• Dor Alon Energy in Israel (1988) Ltd., Minrav Holdings Ltd., Germany's Solar Millennium AG, and France's Alstom SA;
• IDB Holding Corp. Ltd. unit Clal Energy Ltd. and Spain's Abengoa SA;
• BrightSource Energy Inc., Veolia Environnement SA, Dalkia Israel Ltd., and Solar Power Inc. of the US;
• Shafir Civil and Marine Engineering Ltd. and France's EDF Energy SA;
• Ormat Industries Ltd. and Germany's Bosch Solar Energy AG;
• Israel Corporation subsidiary IC Green Energy Ltd. (ICG) and Canada's SkyPower Corporation

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Ormat doubles production capacity at Israeli factory

Ormat Technologies, Inc. today inaugurated a new wing at its manufacturing plant in Yavne, Israel.

Ormat invested $10 million in the new area, which covers 7,200 square meters and will enable the company to double its production capacity, according to a report in Globes. Ormat has hired 140 new employees for the expanded factory, increasing its workforce by 30%.

Guests at the inauguration ceremony included Minister of National Infrastructures Uzi Landau, high-tech entrepreneur Yossi Vardi, who is a close friend of Ormat Group controlling shareholders Yehudit and Yehuda Bronicki, and Dov Lautmann, former Chairman of Delta Galil Industries.

Ormat, a global leader in the geothermal power industry, develops, builds, owns and operates geothermal recovered energy-based power plants, usually using equipment that it designs and manufactures in Israel.

Ormat's shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ORA), where the company is valued at approximately $1.8 billion.

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Ormat to build 330 MW geothermal plant in Indonesia

Ormat Technologies is combining with Itochu Corporation to build a 330 megawatt (MW) geothermal power plant in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia.

The project will cost an estimated $800 million, according a report in Reuters. Ormat and Japan's Itochu Corp. were originally awarded the contract in 2006 and are working in collaboration with Indonesdian energy firm PT Medco.

On Wednesday, Indonesia's energy ministry urged PT Medco to speed up construction. "We want this project to be built quickly because it is very important for Indonesia," J. Purwono, director general of electricity at the ministry, told reporters, adding, "we badly need more power plants."

Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel. The only OPEC member in Southeast Asia., Indonesia has become a net importer of oil in recent years.

The vast archipelago, with hundreds of active and extinct volcanoes, has the potential to produce an estimated 27,000 MW of electricity from geothermal sources.

Ormat Technologies is the NYSE-listed, U.S.-based subsidiary or Ormat Industries. Ormat Industries, located in Yavne, Israel, is one of the world's leading vertically integrated companies dedicated to providing solutions for geothermal power, recovered energy generation (REG) and remote power.

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BusinessWeek covers "Israel's Cleantech Pioneers"

Israel's cleantech industry is the focus of an article in the current issue of BusinessWeek.

A feature article, titled "Israel's Clean Technology Pioneers," includes coverage of companies and venture capital funds including Ormat Technologies, BrightSource Industries, Netafim, and Israel Cleantech Ventures. It also includes a quote from the author of this blog.


Highlights of the article include:

• Yavne, a hazy industrial corridor in central Israel, seems at first glance an improbable haven for geothermal technology. Its largely barren environs offer no geysers or volcanoes, the essential raw materials for geothermal energy. Yet this small city of 32,000 is home to Ormat Technologies, a $2 billion multinational listed on the New York Stock Exchange that builds geothermal power plants around the world, from Colorado to Kenya.

• Israel's siege mentality is driving its six-decade quest to coax more from the soil, water, air, and sunlight than do most other nations on earth.... "The world is now realizing it has to deal with things that Israel has had to tackle for 50 years," says Jacques Benkoski, a venture capitalist with Silicon Valley-based U.S. Venture Partners. "Doing more with less is becoming the standard."

• Google co-founder Sergey Brin and several U.S. politicians have paid visits to Israel recently to learn about water- and energy-conservation technologies. "We can't rely on others for our safety and security," says Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, who is looking to import Israeli solar expertise.

• Israel is a nation of contradictions, socialist in many ways but laissez-faire when it comes to the economy. The national equivalent of a startup, it was founded by people willing to make a go of it in a swath of land dominated by desert.

• "The cleantech economy here hums independently, on market forces and innovation, despite the political situation," complains Glen I.A. Schwaber, 39, a founding partner at $75 million Israel Cleantech Ventures, a VC firm that he runs with Harvard classmate Jack S. Levy.

• Today Hatzerim and two affiliated kibbutzes remain majority owners of the company that has grown into Netafim, a $500 million high-tech drip-irrigation giant employing 2,600 people in 110 countries.
  

• BrightSource's technology seems right out of science fiction. As the van traverses the final mile to a test center in Dimona, what looks like a burning oil rig looms in the distance. Inside the maximum-security complex, passengers present their passports and don protective boots to guard their feet from the scorching sands. A semicircular array of 1,641 mechanized coffee-table-size mirrors pivot to reflect the desert sun's rays onto the boiler atop the rig, which BrightSource calls a "power tower." The company's power towers produce superheated steam for turbines. They "offer the maximum level of efficiency," says Alan E. Salzman, managing partner of Silicon Valley's VantagePoint, BrightSource's largest investor.

• What if Israel could find the will to harness the power of its drip pipes, power towers, and desert fish farms? "Israel has such a geopolitical vested interest to steer this innovation," says Jonathan Shapira, a corporate attorney in Boston who organizes and blogs about Israeli cleantech. "Innovating around scarcity is increasingly the world's story."

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Ormat installing solar panels at factory in Israel

Ormat Industries Ltd., the parent of NYSE-listed Ormat Technologies, a world leader in geothermal and recovered energy power generation, will collaborate with Sunday Solar Energy Ltd. to install an NIS 20 million ($5 million) photovoltaic power system on the roof of Ormat's factory in Yavne, Israel.

The system will have a capacity of 1 megawatt and surplus power not used by Ormat will be sold back to the Israel Electric Corporation. Ormat will thus benefit from the feed-in tariff established by Israel's Public Utilities Authority (Electricity) for the sale of electricity at NIS 1.97 per kilowatt/hour.

Ormat is also participating in the tender for construction of a solar thermal power plant at Ashalim in the Negev.

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A "Renewable Light Unto the Nations"

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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Helioris Solar partners with Rotem Industries on solar thermal R&D

Helioris Solar Systems, a stealthy cleantech startup, is working with the Rotem Renewable Energy Center on an innovative patent-pending topology for solar thermal fields.

The proposed topology apparently combines the benefits of parabolic trough systems, employed by companies such as Solel, and tower systems used by companies such as BrightSource Energy. According to a report by Rotem Industries, the Helioris Solar approach allows the use of dual-axis tracking heliostats and small aperture thermal receivers, thereby increasing optical and thermal efficiency while maintaining a modular scheme of the solar field.

The founders of Helioris Solar are Yossi Yatir and Oded Mor. Yossi Yatir, according to his LinkedIn profile, is an Entrepreneur in Residence at cleantech incubator Precede Technologies, and Yatir and Mor worked together at Chromatis Networks in the late 1990s.

The report notes that Yatir and Mor have filed a provisional patent for their solar topology and an innovative solar thermal receiver, which will be designed by Rotem Industries.

Rotem revives development of high temperature solar receiver

In a possibly related development, Rotem Industries has also announced that it is reviving the development of a volumetric central air receiver for utilization of solar thermal power.

The technology was originally developed as part of a joint project between Rotem Industries, the Weizmann Institute of Science and Ormat in the early 1990s.

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Ormat secures $65m contract for Costa Rican geothermal plant

Ormat Technologies, Inc. announced that it has signed a contract with Banco Centroamericano de Integración Económica ("BCIE") for the supply, supervision of installation, start-up and testing of Las Pailas Geothermal Plant, a new geothermal power plant that is to be constructed in Las Pailas Field, Costa Rica.

The plant will be utilized by Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad ("ICE"), the Costa Rican national electricity and telecommunications company. The contract is valued at approximately $65 million and supply of the power plant is expected to be completed within 18 months from the contract start date.

Ormat Technologies is the U.S-based subsidiary of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat.

This is the second order for an Ormat geothermal power plant in Costa Rica for operation by ICE. ICE has been operating an Ormat 18 MW binary geothermal power plant in Miravalles V since 2004. Ormat has been actively designing, supplying, upgrading and operating geothermal power solutions in Central America since 1999.

Dita Bronicki, CEO of Ormat Technologies, said, "We are very pleased to receive this repeat contract for a geothermal project in Costa Rica and to be able to contribute to the Country's effort to move closer to independence from fossil energy sources. The award of these contracts demonstrates the trust that BCIE and ICE have in our ability to contribute experience and knowledge to the development of this new geothermal field, and we look forward to delivering a high performing power plant on schedule and once again work with ICE's geothermal team."

Ms. Bronicki concluded, "We view this milestone as a demonstration of the effectiveness and reliability of Ormat's solutions and it further reinforces the applicability of our renewable energy solutions to the world electricity markets."

The Pailas plant will mark the fifth geothermal power plant with total capacity of over 150 MW erected and upgraded in Central America by Ormat. The new plant will use water-cooled condensers and will utilize the hi-performance, hi-efficiency organic turbine developed by Ormat for geothermal and recovered-energy applications.

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Ormat geothermal project in Guatemala receives United Nations' Clean Development Mechanism registration

Ormat Technologies, Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat, announced today that the Executive Board of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ("UNFCCC") officially registered Ormat's Amatitlan Geothermal Project in Guatemala as a Clean Development Mechanism ("CDM") on December 12, 2008.

The Mechanism was designed to provide business from developed countries with an economic incentive to help reduce carbon emissions and increase sustainable development in countries that do not have emission reduction targets. The Project is expected to offset emissions of approximately 83,000 tones of CO₂ per year.

With Amatitlan registered under the CDM, the project will be eligible to receive certified emission reduction ("CER") credits, each equivalent to one tone of carbon dioxide, which can be traded or sold. The Project has a long term contract to sell all Amatitlan's CERs to a buyer domiciled in Europe.

Ormat's generating portfolio includes 13 projects totaling 414 MW in the United States, Central America, Kenya and New Zealand. The Amatitlan project is Ormat's first registered CDM project and one of the few CDM registered geothermal projects worldwide and the only project in Guatemala that is CDM registered. Amatitlan was developed on a build-own-operate basis and comprises a 20 MW geothermal power plant based on Ormat Energy Converters. The Project has a long-term power purchase agreement with the Instituto Nacional de Electrificatio.

Mr. Lucien Y. Bronicki, Chairman of Ormat, said: "This registration is a major encouragement for Ormat to continue developing additional geothermal CDM eligible projects worldwide. Even looking beyond the benefit it provides for Ormat, it is an arrangement with far-reaching advantages that will allow for developing host countries to gain access to cost effective, clean and reliable base-load power, that will help reduce their dependency on imported fuels and on rainfall required to sustain their Hydro reservoirs."

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Ormat discovers magma chamber in Hawaii

Ormat Technologies, the U.S. subsidiary of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat, discovered magma while drilling a geothermal well in Hawaii and announced the discovery this week at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco.

The discovery was the first time magma was found its natural environment instead of being ejected by volcano eruption, said Bruce Marsh, a geologist at the Johns Hopkins University and a magma expert, during a press event at the AGU meeting.

"It's like Jurassic Park – it's what's for me, to see this in its natural habitat," Marsh said. "This is a singular event, the first contact with inner Earth."

Ormat began drilling the well in the Puna Geothermal Venture field and power plant in the eastern part of the Big Island of Hawaii in 2005.

Ormat, which has been operating the Puna field and 30-megawatt power plant since 1993, has no commercial use for the magma, but the magma's high temperature means the rock surrounding it could be ideal for extracting geothermal energy.

Ormat plans to drill in areas above the magma chamber and inject water into wells to produce the steam necessary for electricity generation, said Lucien Bronicki, chairman and chief technology officer of Ormat, after the AGU press event.

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Ormat completes $150m Kenyan geothermal project

Ormat Technologies, Inc. announced this week the completion of phase two construction at the Olkaria III geothermal power plant in Kenya. The power plant has been synchronized to the grid, adding 35 MW of base load capacity to the existing 13 MW plant that has been in continuous operation since 2001 with availability between 97% and 99%.

The expanded power plant will save 120,000 tons of imported oil, mitigate approximately 200,000 tons of CO₂ emissions per year and reduce the average production cost of electricity in Kenya while reducing its dependence on imports.

"Ormat is proud to have built up the plant capacity to the original target of 48 MW," said Lucien Bronicki, Chairman and Chief Technical Officer of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat. "This accomplishment was made possible by Ormat's belief in Kenya's economy combined with the hard work and dedication of our Kenyan employees and colleagues."

Ormat Technologies financed the construction of both phases along with the drilling of the wells by investing approximately $150 million into the project from its own internal sources.

The additional clean, base load geothermal energy generated by Olkaria III will increase the supply to the local transmission, distribution and retail utility, Kenya Power and Lighting Company Ltd (KPLC), and help meet the country's increasing demand for reliable, fuel-free electricity.

"Ormat's commitment to Africa started with our first project - a solar pump installed in Mali in 1966," added Mr. Bronicki. "We hope this project spurs additional development and opens the world's eyes to Africa's immense renewable potential. We sincerely hope that Olkaria III will serve as an example for other private investors in Africa and encourage International Financial Institutions to upgrade their support for private renewable energy projects."

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Israel and the African Green Revolution

Evogene, Orfuel and Leviev Group to establish biodiesel company in Namibia, Africa

Evogene, Orfuel, and the Leviev Group have announced an agreement to establish a biodiesel company in Namibia, Africa.

The new company will be focused on the growth of specialized castor plants for use as feedstock for biodiesel. It will be headquartered in Namibia, with operations in Namibia and possibly other African countries.

Evogene and Orfuel, an Ormat subsidiary, have already been working together since September 2007 on developing non-edible plants for commercial biodiesel production, and the castor plants for the new venture will be selected from varieties being developed in the Evogen-Orfuel collaboration. The collaboration is being funded with a grant from the BIRD Foundation.

Land for the crop growth will come from the Leviev Group, which will also provide logistical infrastructure for the project.

"This collaboration fits well into Evogene's business model in the field of biodiesel, and constitutes an additional stage towards commercialization of the plants developed through the joint project with Orfuel in one of the potential target locations," stated Ofer Haviv, Evogene's president and CEO. "We are convinced that with our extensive capabilities in plants together with the vast experience of the Leviev Group in Africa, we will be able to develop improved feedstock addressing the needs of the alternative fuel industry."

Netafim in negotiations with sugarcane ethanol project in Mozambique

In other news, BioEnergy Africa has raised $15.2 million on the London Stock Exchange to fund development of a 438 million liters per yea sugercane ethanol plant in Mozambique.

The company is in discussions with Tel Aviv, Israel-based Netafim to design, procure, and install a subsurface drip irrigation system for the project’s cane fields. At full capacity, the project will include approximately 60,500 acres of planted sugarcane.

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Ormat secures Alaskan geothermal rights

Ormat Technologies, which builds and operates geothermal power plants, announced it has paid $3.3 million for geothermal energy exploration rights on about 35,000 acres in a volcanic region in Alaska.

Ormat said the leased land, which is owned by the state of Alaska, is on the southern flank of the 11,070-foot Mount Spurr about 75 miles west of Anchorage. The company won 15 of 16 tracts offered in the lease sale conducted by Alaska's Department of Natural Resources.

The company claimed that the topographical structure of the region increases the chance of finding a large geothermal field, as compared to the more mature geological structures of Nevada and California.

Commenting on the news, Lucien Bronicki, Chairman and Chief Technology Officer, stated, "Alaska is a new frontier in the geothermal arena with many technological and logistical challenges. Our global experience, particularly in Hawaii, and the support of the local Government along with the collaboration of other local stakeholders, will turn this challenge into an opportunity."

Mr. Bronicki continued, "Alaska has a special significance to Ormat that dates as far back as 1975 when we supplied 100 remote gate valve power systems used for protection of the environment along the TransAlaska pipeline which have been operating continuously for more than 30 years. Even the first geothermal unit developed by Ormat was for the University of Fairbanks for 130 deg Fahrenheit water at the Manley Hot Spring. We have been a friend to Alaska for many years now and we are up to the challenge of creating the State's first large-scale geothermal power plant.

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Ormat projects approved in Nevada

Two renewable energy projects representing a $100 million-plus investment by Las Vegas-based Nevada Power Co. were approved last week by state regulators.

The Public Utilities Commission of Nevada approved a 30-megawatt (MW) co-development geothermal project with Ormat Technologies, a world-leading geothermal company, at Carson Lake, Nev. The project will sit on federal lands, a portion of which includes the Naval Air Station at Fallon, Nev.

Also approved was Nevada Power's proposal to invest in a six-MW heat recovery energy generating facility at Goodsprings, approximately 30 miles south of Las Vegas. The project will be located at the Kern River Gas compressor station, and Ormat is supplying the heat-recovery generating equipment and will build the project for Nevada Power.

Nevada Power is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sierra Pacific Resources, a utility listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

"The Commission's action marks a significant milestone, demonstrating our company's commitment to invest in renewables projects," said Michael Yackira, president and CEO of Sierra Pacific Resources. "These facilities will make an essential contribution to help assure clean, affordable and reliable energy, somewhat buffering our customers from future fossil fuel market uncertainties, most notably natural gas price increases."

Yackira added, "Nevada is already number one in solar and geothermal power per capita and we are continuing to push forward aggressively. We currently have 23 other geothermal plants under contract, and are actively pursuing further investments in geothermal, solar and wind energy."

Nevada Power provides electricity to about 826,000 residential and business customers in a 4,500-square-mile southern Nevada service area.

Source: Nevada Power press release

Ormat secures $16m geothermal contract in Turkey

Ormat Technologies has announced that one of its subsidiaries entered into a $16 million supply contract for a new geothermal power plant to be constructed in Turkey.

Ormat said the customer, Menderes Geothermal Elektrik Uretim, a private developer and owner of the resource in Turkey, already has one operating geothermal power plant that was supplied by Ormat in 2004.

"This marks our fourth order to supply equipment for geothermal power in Turkey and continues our leadership position in creating clean energy both in megawatts and the number of power plants in the country. With the addition of this plant, Ormat will have increased the amount of megawatts it supplies to 20 countries to over 950 MW," said Dita Bronicki, CEO of Ormat.

Ormat did not disclose how much power the new plant would produce, but said it would convert both steam and brine from geothermal wells into electric power.

The company said the plant would also use air-cooled condensers and allow 100 percent geothermal fluid reinjection, which Ormat said serves both to sustain the reservoir and to produce electrical power with virtually no environmental impact.

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Google and Ormat discussing cooperation

Google is in talks with Ormat about cooperation in the field of renewable energy, Google co-founder Sergey Brin told The Marker in an interview over the weekend.

Brin was in Israel for President Shimon Peres' "Facing Tomorrow" conference. He called Ormat an incredible company and said there are a lot of interesting Israeli companies that work in renewable and alternative energy, as well as electric cars.

According to Ha'aretz, senior Google executives have met with their counterparts from Ormat at two alternative energy conferences, and Larry Page, the other co-founder of Google, visited an Ormat geothermal plant in Desert Peak, Nevada.

Google operates in the alternative energy field through its philanthropic arm, Google.org, and the company hopes to "create utility-scale electricity from clean renewable energy sources that is cheaper than electricity produced from coal."

Just last week, Google.org also participated in the $115 million Series C round of financing for BrightSource Energy, the US parent company of Israeli solar energy technology company Luz II.

Ormat chairman Lucien Bronicki said in response that the meetings with Google are being held on a professional basis in order to advance geothermal technology. The firms are working to advance legislation for geothermal technology development budgets from the U.S. government.

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.

Ormat announces new geothermal contract in Nevada

Ormat Technologies Inc. and Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (NGP) announced this week that NGP Blue Mountain I LLC has entered into an Engineering, Procurement and Construction Contract for a 49.5 MW power plant, consisting of three Ormat Energy Converters at Blue Mountain's geothermal project in Nevada.

The plant design incorporates Ormat's proprietary power generation technology with water-cooling for maximum efficiency. The total contract value is US$76 million.

If you are interested in learning more about Ormat and geothermal power, I suggest reading this interview with Paul Thomsen, Ormat's Public Policy Manager, which was published this week on AlternativeEnergy.com. Thomsen discusses Ormat's technology, its competitiveness vis a vis coal and natural gas power plants, the company's plans for R&D and expansion, the influence of government policy on the company's prospects, and the obstacles to geothermal's growth as a renewable energy source.

Ormat Technologies is the only vertically-integrated company primarily engaged in the geothermal and recovered energy power business. The company designs, develops, owns and operates geothermal and recovered energy-based power plants around the world.

Listed on the NYSE, Ormat Technologies is a subsidiary of Yavne, Israel-based Ormat Industries. Founded in 1965 by Lucien and Yehudit Bronicki, a husband-and-wife team who now serve, respectively, as chairman and CEO, the company has developed over a gigawatt of geothermal generation around the world, and it owns and operates approximately 400 megawatts in the US. It has a market capitalization of $2 billion.

Much of Ormat's success owes to a breakthrough turbine design developed by the Bronickis that permits renewable energy sources such as geothermal or solar-heated steam to be converted into electricity more efficiently. After decades of selling turbines alone, Ormat in the mid 1990s started building geothermal plants of its own around the world that use its super-efficient turbine technology.

Geothermal's great advantage over intermittent renewables such as solar and wind power is that it is not dependent on the elements, and it produces continuous power 24 hours a day. The big drawback is that geothermal plants tend to be small. Depending on the strength of the natural source, they're usually no more than 100 megawatts in capacity.

Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. is a renewable energy company developing geothermal projects in the United States to provide electrical energy that is clean, renewable and sustainable. NGP currently owns a 100% leasehold interest in four properties: Blue Mountain that is expected to commence power generation late 2009, Pumpernickel, Black Warrior, all located in Nevada and Crump Geyser in Oregon.