Ormat Set to Release Alaska’s Geothermal Energy Potential
Russell Cohen from http://www.greenprophet.com reports…
With dwindling natural gas reserves, will South Alaska be powered with geothermal energy? Ormat may be the first to open Alaskan territories, still virgin to this clean technology.
“Yavne, in Israel’s Central District, was briefly home to ancient Israel’s Sanhedrin (its highest rabbinical assembly). The town of 32,000 can also claim to be the original home of Ormat Technologies, Inc, now a multinational listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: ORA) and headquartered in Reno, Nevada. Ormat has been around for the last 40 years, and has a market capitalisation of $2 billion and annual revenues of $250 million.
Ormat specialises in building power stations fuelled by renewable geothermal energy. This energy emanates ultimately from the Earth’s molten core, and it’s the “renewable” part of the equation that has driven Ormat’s recent growth. Ormat owns and operates a dozen geothermal energy power plants worldwide, with another eight or so under development. By their nature, the plants tend to be located in geyser and volcano-rich areas.
What does this have to do with Alaska? Ormat leased some 36,000 acres of Federal land in Alaska back in 2008, but has carried out only exploratory work until now. With Alaska just having reformed its
geothermal energy royalties system, it has now become financially viable to begin core drilling, leading up to actual development and construction at the site. (more…)
