Ormat project to create nearly 400 jobs in Northern Nevada

September 23, 2011

Washington, D.C. – Nevada Senator Harry Reid today announced that the Department of Energy has finalized a partial loan guarantee for a $350 million loan to Ormat Nevada, Inc., that will create nearly 400 jobs and increase Nevada’s geothermal power production by almost 25 percent.  The Ormat geothermal plants supported by the loan guarantee are the Jersey Valley project located in Pershing County, the McGinness Hills project in Lander County and the Tuscarora project in Elko County.

“Now that this loan guarantee is finalized, hundreds of Nevadans will soon be working again,” Reid said.  “I thank Secretary Chu and the Obama Administration for their commitment to putting Nevadans back to work and boosting Nevada’s clean energy economy.  This is another step in the right direction as Nevada continues to lead the nation in geothermal power production.”

The loan guarantee will help create 332 construction jobs and 64 operations jobs and produce up to 113 megawatts (MW) of clean, baseload power from three geothermal power facilities. The geothermal facilities include the utility-scale deployment of the Ormat Energy Converter (OEC) modules used around the world. The Ormat Geothermal Project is expected to avoid nearly 580,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually and produce enough electricity to power nearly 88,000 homes.

BACKGROUND

Reid first announced in June that Ormat Nevada, Inc., was offered a federal loan guarantee that would help create jobs and assist production of clean energy in Nevada.

Conditional loan guarantees that DOE has already extended are allowing two clean energy companies, Fotowatio and Solar Reserve, to move forward with financial confidence. Fotowatio is planning to build a solar energy plant north of Las Vegas, creating 250 jobs; SolarReserve is planning the Crescent Dunes solar project in Tonopah, which will create 600 jobs. 

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