Geothermal project developer Ormat Technologies has acquired the 20-MW Blue Mountain power plant from Cyrq Energy.
The $88 million transaction gives Ormat 100% equity interest in the geothermal plant in the company’s home state of Nevada. The acquisition increases Ormat’s geothermal portfolio to nearly 200 power plants totaling more than 1,200 MW in energy capacity.
The Blue Mountain geothermal plant currently delivers heat and power under a power purchase agreement with utility NV Energy. That deal is scheduled to expire at the end of 2029, although Ormat intends to up the capacity by approximately 3.5 MW.
Read EnergyTech's Full Coverage of Geothermal Projects
Ormat owns and operates geothermal and other renewable power projects across the world, including Indonesia, Honduras, Kenya and the U.S. One of the potential plans with Blue Mountain includes developing a co-located 13-MW solar facility to help power the geothermal plant’s auxiliary operations.
Geothermal energy, captured by drilling down to harness some of the heat generated by the earth’s subterranean friction, offers potentially enormous megajoules of capacity for heating, cooling and electricity. Tapping that resource, however, is problematic and historically limited in a range that includes Nevada, Utah and California in the U.S.
Some companies are utilizing longtime oil and gas drilling sites to convert to geothermal for customers. And high-profile customers such as Meta are exploring a variety of long-term geothermal deals.
