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Ormat Technologies (NASDAQ: ORA) is a leading company in the geothermal power industry with more than two decades of proven expertise in geothermal and recovered energy power generation.
Highlights:
· 1965-Ormat Technologies was founded by Lucien and Dita Bronicki who developed the original turbine with the aim of tapping into renewable energy sources in remote areas.
· Shortly thereafter, Ormat turned to geothermal applications, which harnesses steam, heat or hot water from geysers or hot springs on the earth’s surface to produce electricity.
· Ormat commercialized its Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) technology for high reliability factory integrated power systems with its first line of products, known as ORMAT® Energy Converters (or OECs), which have been industry standards over the years.
· 1971-The first successful commercial applications of the OEC for telecommunications was the installation of the power units for the backbone microwave system in Argentina.
· Late 1970’s-Ormat turned its technology vision toward the use of locally available energy sources, such as solar, biomass, and geothermal, to generate commercial power. By the early 1980s several 300 to 600 KW waste heat OEC units had been installed in the USA, Europe and elsewhere.
· Mid 1990’s-Ormat made the conscious decision, that in addition to providing its technology and expertise to others, it would also invest its profits and internal funds in the development, ownership and operation of geothermal power projects.
· 1997-Ormat developed the 49 MW Leyte Optimization Project in the Philippines.
· 1999-Ormat developed the 24 MW Zunil Geothermal Project in Guatemala.
· Ormat maintains an active presence in all major geothermal markets, with 700 MW of Ormat built power plants operating in 21 countries. The largest plant is 130 MW in the Philippines and the smallest is 250 KW in Austria.
· Ormat owns geothermal power plants in the US, Guatemala, Kenya and Nicaragua.
· Ormat has been granted more than 75 U.S. patents for proprietary power technologies, and has applied for more than an additional 14 currently (Feb. '08) pending.
· Ormat is the third largest geothermal power producer in the United States, with approximately 313 MW (*) of geothermal and recovered energy-based power generating capacity in power plants in California, Nevada and Hawaii.
Awards and Achievements:
· 2006- Frost & Sullivan selected Ormat Technologies, Inc. as the recipient of the 2006 Advanced Geothermal Energy Technologies Technology Leadership of the Year Award.
· 2005- Ormat was honored with the "Centenary Recognition Award" from the Italian Geothermal Union (UGI) in recognition of its "outstanding achievements in developing geothermal power generation worldwide".
· 2001-Ormat was awarded the CTI Climate Technology Initiative - World Climate Technology Award in Marrakech, Morocco.
· 1995-Ormat received the President's "E" Certificate for Exports, in recognition of its outstanding contribution to the Export Expansion Program of the United States of America.
Returns and Investments:
· Ormat has a 7.6% stake in publicly traded Canadian company, Opti Canada, and is using Ormat technology, developed in the 1990’s, to produce oil from the tar sands of Canada’s Alberta province.
· 2006-Ormat, in partnership with Japan’s Itochu and Indonesia’s Medco Energi International, began construction of a new 340 megawatt geothermal power project on the island of Sumatra, the largest facility in history.
· The Ormat group sales for the supply of geothermal equipment and the sale of geothermal electricity, has grown to nearly $100M annually, with Latin America playing a major role in this growth.
· 2007 revenues from Ormat’s electricity segment, was $216.0 million, 73% of the total revenues of $296.0 million.
· 2008-Total revenues for the first quarter of 2008 were $69.4 million, an increase of 12.4% over the same period the previous year.
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