Ormat Technologies, a Northern Nevada geothermal company, and eBay have entered into a joint development agreement to work toward a 5-megawatt recovered energy generation (REG) power plant.
The plant would be constructed in Utah for eBay’s new Salt Lake City-based data center. The agreement sets the stage for advance negotiations on a 20-year term contract to begin work on the clean-energy electricity facility.
“We’re hopeful,” said Yoram Bronicki, Ormat president and CEO, “that our work with eBay Inc. will continue to promote REG as a predictable, environmentally friendly energy source that provides a hedge against the variability of fossil fuel costs.”
The Ormat-eBay pact was made possible by state legislation that eBay helped develop to enable non-utility consumers to buy and transmit power directly from energy developers, according to a news release.
Ormat, which is based in Reno, is the only vertically integrated company solely engaged in geothermal and REG. The clean-energy company, with 82 U.S. patents, has more than 500 employees in the United States and about 600 more overseas. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and trades under the symbol ORA.