ThinkGeoEnergy – Geothermal Energy News

6 companies bid for Hawaii geothermal development

Hawaiian utility Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) has received 6 bids for its request for proposals for the development of additional 50 MW of geothermal power generation capacity.

The U.S. state of Hawaii is looking at geothermal energy as an energy source helping it to get off the dependency on imported fossil fuels for power generation.

As part of those efforts Hawaii Electric Light Co. (HELCO) had set up request for proposals for the development of additional 50 MW of geothermal power generation capacity on Hawaii island as reported previously on ThinkGeoEnergy.

Local news now report that by the deadline of April 31, six bids were received. The utility now expects a contract to be awarded by September 2013. Following that HELCO will seek a power purchase agreement through the State Public Utilities Commission, a process that can take – so local news – up to a year.

The results of the tender are confidential, the only company that has come forward so far is Ormat Technologies. Ormat owns Puna Geothermal Venture, that runs the state’s only geothermal power plant Puna with an installed capacity of 38 MW. Innovations Development Group of Honolulu had also planned to submit a bid and has financial backing of the Office of Hawaiian affairs, as reported earlier.

With the six bids now in the hand of HELCO, an independent observer is helping in the review of the bids. Again contracts would likely not be awarded until September this year.

Source: West Hawaii Today

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