The Beowawe geothermal plant in Eastern Nevada last week became the first geothermal project in the country funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to start generating power.
It’s a low-temperature, binary cycle plant that uses waste heat from the brine of an existing geothermal plant at the facility, a Department of Energy statement described. It will add about 2 megawatts of clean energy capacity to the plant’s 17.7 megawatts. The plant was developed by Terra-Gen Power and TAS Energy and was partially funded by a $2 million stimulus funding grant from the DOE. Private sector investments added an additional $4 million for the project, which created 20 construction jobs last year.