Ormat receives approval for 30MW project in Nevada
Steamboat Springs plant of Ormat, Nevada (source: Commons/ Wikimedia)
Alexander Richter
29 Jun 2010
In a fast-track regulatory process, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved a 30 MW geothermal power project by Ormat Technologies in Nevada.
“The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has approved plans by geothermal developer Ormat Technologies Inc. to build a 30 megawatt project under a “fast-track” regulatory process.”, so news from Business Week yesterday.
“Ormat will develop the 15 megawatt first phase for operation by late 2010, the bureau said in a statement. A second plant may be built in 2011, with 85 percent of the entire project located on bureau land in Pershing and Lander counties.
Ormat is the second geothermal developer to get fast- track approval in the state, following the October 2009 commissioning of the 49.5 megawatt Blue Mountain project by Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. Ormat was involved in that project.
Ormat’s 30 megawatt McGinness Hills project in Lander County is also a fast-track candidate project awaiting approval, as are 186 megawatts of Terra-Gen Power LLC projects. Nevada has a total of 325 megawatts of geothermal generating capacity spread over 11 projects, with three on bureau-managed public land.
In early June, Ormat said it would accelerate its exploration work in Alaska this summer following the signing of Senate Bill 243 in that state which will reduce the rate of royalties paid for geothermal production on state lands to the same rate as Federal land.”
Source: Business Week
