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We’re excited to announce that as of November 5, 2020 our Puna power plant has resumed operation supplying clean, renewable energy for Hawaii. We expect to reach full operation by the middle of 2021.

Over the past two and a half years, Ormat has been working closely with Hawaiian Electric to get our Puna Geothermal Power Plant back up and running after the devastating Kilauea Volcano eruption.

PGV came online in 1993, providing Hawai'i Island with clean, safe, renewable, reliable and affordable energy. 

On Sunday afternoon, May 27th (Hawaiian time), the approaching lava from the erupting Kilauea volcano, blocked the main access road to the power plant, covered the wellheads of two geothermal wells, burnt  the substation of the complex and an adjacent warehouse that stored a drilling rig.

“After safely securing the plant during the lava intrusion all we could do is sit back and watch this amazing phenomenon.” says Jordan Hara, Ormats power plant manager “I really appreciated Ormat’s commitment and support given to our Puna plant during this event and through recovery. When the lava stopped the next thing that came to my mind is when can we get back online”.

Our teams worked day and night to get the power plant back on. On November 5th, 2020, the electricity production partially resumed. We expect to gradually ramp up to 15 MW by the end of 2020, subject to the successful connection of an additional production well to the power plant.

Final goal is resuming full operation by the middle of 2021.

ABOUT ORMAT TECHNOLOGIES

With over five decades of experience, Ormat Technologies, Inc. is a leading geothermal Company and the only vertically integrated Company engaged in geothermal, recovered energy generation (REG) and Energy Storage.

With 68 U.S. patents, Ormat’s power solutions have been refined and perfected under the most grueling environmental conditions. Ormat has 578 employees in the United States and 830 overseas.

Ormat’s flexible, modular solutions for geothermal power, REG and Storage are ideal for the vast range of resource characteristics. The Company has engineered, manufactured and constructed power plants, which it currently owns or has installed to utilities and developers worldwide, totaling over 3,000 MW of gross capacity. Ormat’s current 933 MW generating portfolio is spread globally in the U.S., Guatemala, Guadeloupe, Honduras, Indonesia and Kenya.

The month of October 2020 has seen a tremendous growth of its geothermal power generation capacity. Ormat Technologies had a great part in this growth!

In October alone we have operated 3 geothermal power plant for our customers and partners. Among the plants are the 3.5 MW Emirler geothermal power plant, a new business for its owner Halil Pekdemir and the 20 MW Nezihe Beren geothermal power plant of Maren.

Emirler - The Pekdemir business is in the agriculture market, growing and distributing agriculture products to supermarkets. They also own their own chain. They are a big agriculture landowner around the Denizli area.
Several years ago, Mr. Pekdemir found geothermal resource in his land. First, he used it to heat and cultivate some of his greenhouse. But with the discovery of a stronger resource in Emirler, we met and worked on a program to develop it for electricity generation too.
On Dec 6th ,2019 we sign the first unit, Emirler JES 1, in a capacity of 3.5 MW.
We are very proud that with the full support of Pekdemir team, headed by Sinan Akbay, we succeeded to deliver and install the first unit in a record time of less than 11 months.
Now we are planning the continuation- Emirler JES 2 and other areas in the future.

Nezihe Beren - Yet another geothermal power plant of Maren, one of Kipas Holding companies. Maren signed their first geothermal plant in Germencik area (Irem) with Ormat on Feb 11, 2010.
Nezihe Beren was signed on June 20, 2019 for 20 MW gross capacity. It is Maren’s 7th power plant, and with ken 1& 3 and Kiper 1, Kipas hold 10 power plant in total rated gross capacity of 220 MW.
With this power plant, the number of Ormat technology based operating powerplants in Turkey reaches 40, and 3 under construction.

Emirler, Pekdemir, Turkey, 3.5 MW

Emirler, Pekdemir, Turkey, 3.5 MW

With travel and safety restrictions limiting our geothermal facility tours this year, our business development and marketing teams have come up with a creative solution to show off our newest facility! Check out the 360-degree video of our newest geothermal facility, Steamboat Hills, below. With 360-degree video technology, you can pause the video, move the screen, or tilt your phone to view the plant from any perspective you want. Give it a test drive on your laptop, phone, or tablet device to see geothermal as you’ve never seen it before. (Recommended browser is Chrome, recommended setting of 1080p.)

The Steamboat Hills complex is located in Washoe County, Nevada and is part of the Steamboat Complex that is comprised of six power plants utilizing binary systems with both air and water cooling. The generating capacity of the complex is 84 MW, with the first plant reaching commercial operation in 1992, and the most recent plant reaching commercial operation in June of 2020.

We are proud to release for commercial implementation, our recent registered patent for WIND GUIDING VANES

For couple of years Ormat studied the wind flow production effect on its Don A Campbell geothermal complex and confirmed the theoretically known major effect on Air Cooled Condensers thermal performance. Ormat managed to recover 2000 MWh to the yearly production using its recently patented  Wind Guiding Vanes (WGV), developed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and optimization process.

Following the promising results, Ormat now offers the WGV to its worldwide clients.

Wind has a major effect on Air Cooled Condensers thermal performance, thus, on geothermal plants power generation. To regain plant generation during winds, wind effect analysis was performed in Don A Campbell, an Ormat geothermal power plant in Nevada. Field tests were executed on small scale system, including fan flowrate measurements and smoke tests. Results showed a significant performance improvement with the WGV system equipped bays in windy conditions.

Rankine cycle condenser thermal performance determines the turbine back pressure, thus has direct impact on power plant generation, especially in low enthalpy (geothermal heat resource) Organic Rankine Cycle application. Following the promising results, full scale solution was implemented in Don A Campbell and is now a commercial patented solution.

AFTER:                                                           BEFORE:
  

Early this year, Ormat published a Technical paper reviewing the wind effect mitigation methods for air cooled condensers, fundamental analysis of the problem and Ormat designed solution.

Read the complete description, tests and results in the article.

Don A. Campbell Complex, NV, USA, 36 MW