BLM authorizes expansion of McGinness Hills project by Ormat
The local office of the Bureau of Land Management has issued a site license to Ormat Technologies for the expansion of its McGinness Hills geothermal power plant in Austin, Nevada.
In a release, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Battle Mountain District announces having issued “a site license to Ormat Technologies, Inc. for the construction of their second power plant located on public lands at the McGinness Hills Geothermal Project , approximately 16 miles northeast of Austin, Nevada .
In 2011, Ormat was authorized to construct two geothermal power plants and completed the first in 2012. The second power plant, nearly identical to the first, is a binary air-cooled operation capable of producing approximately 45 megawatts. The previously analyzed surface disturbance totals about 16.5 acres and includes a substation used to transform generated low voltage to the higher voltage required for a transmission line. A 9-mile long, 230 kV overhead transmission line connects the site to the existing NV Energy Frontier substation.
The BLM manages more than 245 million acres of public land, the most of any Federal agency. This land, known as the National System of Public Lands, is primarily located in 12 Western states, including Alaska.”
Source: BLM via Renewables Biz