Ormat to build another geothermal plant in New Zealand

Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA) of Reno, Nevada today announced it's entering into contracts with Ngawha Generation Ltd., a subsidiary of Top Energy Limited ("Top Energy") for a new geothermal power plant in Ngawha, New Zealand.

The contracts are for a total of approximately $20 million, with construction of the power plant expected to be completed within 20 months from the contract date.

Top Energy is an environmentally friendly local electricity network company in New Zealand.

This is the second order for an Ormat geothermal power plant from the company. Top Energy has been operating an Ormat 12 MW geothermal power plant in Ngawha since June 1998. Both plants will produce approximately 75% of the electricity used by Top Energy's 26,000 consumers.

Upon completion of the plant, the total installed capacity of Ormat's power plants in New Zealand will exceed 200 MW. The Ngawha plant contract is the tenth Ormat supply contract in New Zealand, six of which are repeat contracts for the supply of geothermal power plants in New Zealand.

Lucien Y. Bronicki, Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer of Ormat Technologies, said, "We are more than pleased with our progress over the past 25 years in New Zealand and remain confident that the efficient and sustainable use of geothermal resources, with its emission reduction and the prudent and modular development, will continue to attract medium and small developers such as medium size utilities, land owners and private investors, as well as the traditional large utilities".

The new plant will optimize energy utilization by converting both geothermal steam and brine from geothermal wells into electric power energy.

Unlike flash steam turbine plants that deplete resources by consuming water in cooling towers, the new plant, as all existing Ormat plants in New Zealand, is to reinject 100% of the geothermal fluid by using air-cooled condensers. The reinjection serves both to sustain the reservoir and to produce electrical power with virtually no environmental impact.

Ormat Technologies designs, develops, builds, owns and operates geothermal power plants. It is a pioneer Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology and a leader in the manufacture of ORC power equipment.

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