Nevada Geothermal Power Inc and Ormat Technologies Inc have announced that a Limited Notice To Proceed has been issued on the Blue Mountain Project to supply and construct the Phase 1 power plant of Nevada Geothermal’s geothermal power development at Blue Mountain, Nevada.

The Blue Mountain Faulkner 1 Geothermal Power Plant is expected to be completed by the end of 2009 and the first phase will produce an estimated power of 37.5MW .

The initial program involves drilling 4 13-inch diameter production wells to a depth of 1200 metres into the moderate temperature 148-165°C geothermal resource that was intersected in previous test holes.

At least one of the wells will extend to 2000 metres to explore for a much hotter gethermal resource (around 230°C). The high temperature resource, if confirmed, would have a higher potential power output of > 100MW.

The Blue Mountain Geothermal Field has proven to be an extremely promising with signifincant strong points such as high geothermal water temperatures, rapid increase in shallow rock temperatures, close proximity to interstate power grid.

Note: There has since been an update report for the Blue Mountain Geothermal Project.

To read about more geothermal energy developments, get yourself over to the Geothermal Energy page.