Origin Energy announced the company, as part of a consortium of companies, has been granted the concession for exploring geothermal potential in Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The consortium, made up of Origin Energy (Australia), Tata Power (India) and PT Supraco (Indonesia), are going to be exploring potential in the Sorik Marapi concession, estimated to have between 200 and 300 MW of power geothermal capacity.
Panax Geotherma (Australia) and Indonesian company PT Bakrie Power have entered into an agreement under which the two companies are forming a joint venture for exploring, development and power generation from geothermal resources in Indonesia.
Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has give approval for a USD 40 million loan to Nicaragua for financing the second phase of the San Jacinto-Tizate geothermal power plant, being developed by Polaris Energy Nicaragua.
Upon completion of the expansions on the first and second phase of the power plant, the plant will be able to output 72 MW of clean electricity. This will increase the country's overall power generation from renewable sources by 7 percent. The San Jacinto-Tizate location is considered to be one of highest quality in terms of geothermal energy potential in the world. The power plant will be the second commercially operational geothermal power plant in Nicaragua. Completion of the second phase of the power plant is scheduled for the end of 2011, and will represent a USD 177 million investment.
Nicaragua has set one of the highest goals for renewable energy in the world. The country plans to reach 86% renewable energy sources in its power portfolio by 2014.
[source: IADB]
Ormat announced the company has acquired Constellation Energy's 50% stake in the Mammoth complex in California (USA), for USD 72.5 million. Ormat now owns the geothermal power plants, the land and associated equipment, but also the rights to more than 10,000 acres of undeveloped federal lands.
Geothermal hotspots in Indonesia.
Terra Energy announced it has issued 15 million new restricted shares for the purpose of collaterlizing a USD 5 million fund raising effort for financing further geothermal development in Indonesia. The company has entered into an agreement with Indonesian Jala Tekno Geothermal, part of Pandawa Energy, to further explore the opportunity found in an area where Jala Tekno already drilled a well with potential to produce about 6 MW of power. The area is estimated to be able to produce between 75 MW and 150 MW of geothermal power.
Terra Energy has been in negotiations with Jala Tekno Geothermal over this project in April this year, so this agreement represents a continuation of this process.
[source: Terra Energy]
Delivery of new components at Reykjanes power plant.
Magma Energy announced the arrival of the first Fuji turbine to be used for expanding the Reykjanes geothermal power plant on Iceland. The plant cuis verytrrently outputs 100 MW of power, but with the planned extension, it will be able to output 180 Mw. The extension will happen in two phases, with the first one being the addition of the new turbine which will increase the capacity by 50 MW. The second phase, to be completed by 2013 will add another 30 MW of power capacity to the plant.
Along with the installation of the new turbine, Magma Energy is also performing drilling operations in order to tap more steam from the underground wells. This new steam will be used to supply the new turbine with working fluid. The company has reached depths of about 3000 meters, and came upon steam at temperatures of about 315 degrees Celsius.
The Phase 1 50 MW expansion has a budget of USD 116 million, of which about a third has been spent since the beginning of activities at the end of May.
[source: Magma Energy]
Ormat Technologies and JFE Energineering (Japan) have entered into a cooperation agreement under which the two companies will work as a joint venture to develop geothermal energy capacity in Japan. JFE Engineering (JFEE) will be doing geothermal power plant construction, and the related balance of plant, infrastructure and field surface facilities. JFEE will additionally provide local maintenance services to clients as the need arises. Ormat will provide all the necessary power generation equipment and related engineering services.
Japanese authorities have announced plans for the development of some 600 MW of geothermal capacity in the country over the next ten years. Geothermal is a significant part of Japan's Renewable Portfolio Standard. Ormat has already installed a geothermal power plant in Japan, the 2 MW plant supplied to Kyushu geothermal facility at Hatchobaru. Ormat is represented in Japan by the Itochu Corporation, with whom the company has collaborated on projects in Indonesia and in a geothermal BOT project in the Philippines.
[source: Ormat Technologies]
Radius Gold announced the company has been granted a geothermal license in Guatemala. The license allows the company to pursue geothermal assessment and development on a total of a little more than 200,000 hectares of land.
Radisu Gold has originally been involved in mining gold in Guatemala, but the company noticed the presence of hot springs near and at the gold mining sites, indicating hydrothermal activity in these areas. With the increasing trend of clean energy development, the company decided to pursue a more specific strategy and move towards geothermal energy exploitation.
Most of power generation in Guatemala is currently from hydro energy sources, gas turbines and diesel generators, but also geothermal energy in the latter years (only 3% of the total power generating capacity in the country though). According to a published study, it is estimated that this Latin American country holds anywhere from 800 to 4000 MW of geothermal power generating capacity. It is most likely however, that about 1000 MW is technically feasible.
Radius Gold is using its accumulated experience over the past ten years, and the knowledge of Guatemalan geology to assess geothermal energy exploitation opportunities, as well as parallely pursuing mineral mining opportunities. Apart from this latest geothermal license grant, the company is waiting to receive an answer for another six applications for geothermal exploration activities.
[source: Radius Gold]
The US Department of Energy (DoE) has offered a USD 102 million conditional commitment for a loan guarantee to US Geothermal, for the purpose of building a 22 MW geothermal power plant in southeast Oregon.
The new project will be using an improved technology for extracting energy from rock and fluids in the earth's crust with more efficiency. The supercritical binary geothermal cycle is touted to be more efficient than traditional binary technology. The supercritical cycle allows developers to use lower-temperature geothermal resources to generate power. More energy will now be available from existing wells, but developers will also be able to tap into geothermal areas previously discarded due to lower temperatures.
US Geothermal estimates the creation of about 150 jobs during the construction period, and ten permanent jobs once the power plant becomes operational.
[source: US DoE, image: US Geothermal]
According to a recently released report by the Geothermal Energy Association (GEA), called "Geothermal Energy: International Market Update", some 52 million people worldwide are now using electricity generated from geothermal energy sources. Furthermore, 24 countries have increased the amount of power online from geothermal sources by 20% since the last report, which was back in 2005. It is estimated that currently there is about 10 GW of geothermal power generating capacity installed around the world.
Probably the most interesting finding is that the number of countries pursuing opportunities in geothermal development has increased dramatically – seventy countries currently have geothermal developments under way, which is a 52% increase from the status back in 2007. Europe alone now has 24 countries actively involved in the development of geothermal energy sources, while there are 11 countries in Africa doing the same thing.
