Geothermal and waste heat harvest equipment maker and electricity generator Ormat issued a short earnings preview this morning stating that revenue was up year over year from $72M to $73M. Net profit however dropped from $87M to $47M; however, the prior comparison period had a one-time capital gain of $47M reported. Excluding this gain, profit increased from $40M to $47M year over year.

Recently Nevada Power Corporation, MidAmerica Holdings, and Ormat announced a project to recover waste heat at the Kern River Gas Transmission station at Goodsprings, about 35 miles south of Las Vegas. The project, scheduled to go into commercial operation subject to regulatory approval in 2010, will be sufficient to supply around 1,200 homes with electricity. This represents another important step in micro-generation and harvest and will be net positive for all parties involved.

Details of the announcement are available from Sierra Pacific Resources, the parent company of Nevada Power.

Exterior of the White Swan


Established in 1778, the Weisser Schwan (White Swan) restaurant has been a fixture in the Zentrum of Heidelberg for some time. During my visits to this charming city, I’ve had a chance to sample quite a few different restaurants and this one is a favorite. It’s nice and inviting, the food is very good, and you can’t beat a table by the window where there are clear views to all the activity on the Hauptstrasse. You can get a sense of the interior from the photo below.

Interior of the White Swan


I had a side salad and the pepper steak with noodles with an Andechser Bock beer, it was excellent. The service was fast, friendly, and efficient (and I managed the whole transaction in German, which is a step forward for me given that I had a vocabulary of 12 words on my first trip.) If you happen to be in Heidelberg, you won’t go wrong with the White Swan.

At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, I don’t get Twitter. I’ve tried, but I just don’t see the necessity for what amounts to sms updates to the world at large – I mean, why bother? There’s IM that tells if you’re available or not. Email is instantaneous and ubiquitous these days. People, ahem, blog frequently letting others know what they’re up to. Why Twit? What’s the big attraction? Has it ever proven useful? Enquiring minds want to know…..

While I don’t get Twitter, I do have to admit, for some unknown reason, Twittervision can be mesmerizing although it’s a complete waste of time. All these people twitting here and there projected on a global map. But look at the content for a moment and it’s easy to realize this is not a high value communications medium.

So intrepid readers, if you twitter, tell me, what am I missing? Have I crossed the threshold to old?

Polaris Geothermal, who recently announced a successful well test on their Nicaraguan concession, has recently announced a debt funding round of $27M in exchange for 27,000 units. A unit will consist of $1,000 in 9.5% senior debt, 667 warrants, and 75 penalty rights. The debt is due in 18 months time and will be paid quarterly in arrears. Jacob & Company, the underwriters of the deal, stand to benefit $1.89M for their fee and an option to acquire 7% of the offering.

The proceeds from this funding round will be used to retire $8.3M in debt due and the balance will be used for general corporate purposes according to the company. This debt round comes on the heels of a prior $32M private placement completed in July, 2007.