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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