Reno

Reno, NV-based geothermal power company Ormat Technologies Inc. said last week that it signed a shared-cost agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to validate its proven geothermal power production system’s applicability to using the hot water produced as an offshoot of oilfield production. DOE and Ormat will conduct the research and development work at the DOE’s Rocky Mountain Oil Test Center near Casper, WY.

Reno, NV-based Ormat Technologies, Inc. announced Thursday it completed a series of four recovered energy generation (REG) plants along the Northern Border Pipeline in North and South Dakota that will produce approximately 22 MW for Bismarck, ND-based Basin Electric Power Cooperative. Basin has a 25-year power purchase agreement with Ormat that was announced last year.

The cargo of a tanker truck reported to be carrying liquefied natural gas (LNG) caught fire on a stretch of Interstate Highway 80 about 30 miles east of Reno, NV, causing the highway to be shut in both directions and residents and businesses within a one-mile radius evacuated. A pipeline safety engineer from the Nevada Public Utilities Commission was headed to the scene early in the afternoon for a fire that broke out near a truck rest stop about 11 a.m. PDT.

A federal court has dismissed a $600 million complaint against several natural gas suppliers brought by Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources, the holding company for Nevada’s two major private-sector electric utilities, according to an announcement by Sierra Pacific Wednesday. The company said in a subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it is reviewing the court decision and its options for further action, if any.

A federal court has dismissed a $600 million complaint against several natural gas suppliers brought by Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources, the holding company for Nevada’s two major private-sector electric utilities, according to an announcement by Sierra Pacific Wednesday. The company said in a subsequent Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it is reviewing the court decision and its options for further action, if any.

Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources last week wrestled with uneasy shareholders who eager to find out what the future holds for Las Vegas-based Nevada Power Co. By Thursday, the holding company for Nevada’s two major private-sector electric utilities named a new president for the utility and vowed to fight pending public sector takeover attempts.

Two prominent energy industry consultants agreed last Tuesday at GasMart/Power in Reno that fallout from Enron’s bankruptcy probably will include significant reregulation of the energy markets and continued unprecedented financial scrutiny of the energy industry.

Two prominent energy industry consultants agreed Tuesday at GasMart/Power in Reno that fallout from Enron’s bankruptcy probably will include significant reregulation of the energy markets and continued unprecedented financial scrutiny of the energy industry.

Although its $2 billion acquisition of Portland General Electric is in doubt, Reno-based Sierra Pacific Resources likes the law passed last Wednesday by the Nevada legislature because it promises to protect Sierra’s two electric utilities from the soaring western wholesale electricity prices that have eroded the finances of California’s two largest utilities.