San Emidio Project In-Depth

The San Emidio geothermal project, purchased by U.S. Geothermal Inc. in April of 2008, has an operating binary power plant with 3.6 MW net capacity. It is located in northern Washoe County, Nevada just south of the town of Gerlach, and is approximately 100 miles north of Reno. The project is comprised of approximately 22,944 acres of private and BLM administered land that contains a proven geothermal reservoir that is estimated to be capable of producing up to 44 megawatts of power at a 90% probability, based on an independent estimate from Black Mountain Technology.

The power plant was constructed in 1986 with commercial power generation beginning in 1987. Deeper wells with higher temperatures were drilled in 1994 to supply the plant after output declined due to cooling of the original, shallow production wells. . The current configuration of the plant consists of four 1.2 MW Ormat Energy Converters, three injection wells and four production wells. A three cell cooling tower was added in 1998 to improve summer power generation. Sierra Pacific Power Company purchases the power under the terms of a power purchase agreement that continues to 2017. The plant is connected to the transmission grid via a 60 kilovolt intertie.