Via Sierra Geothermal:

8/17/2007 11:12:21 AM ET News Release Index

Sierra Geothermal Power Corp Secures New Geothermal Leases in Nevada

Sierra Geothermal Power Corp (SGP); TSX-V: SRA, is pleased to announce that it was the successful bidder for 18,103 acres of geothermal lease rights in the areas of Dixie Valley and Brady/Desert Peak, Nevada. These leases were acquired through the Bureau of Land Management’s competitive bidding process.

The acquired leases in Dixie Valley are located 6.4 km from the 66 Megawatt Geothermal Power Plant operated by Caithness Energy, LLC, which has been producing power at the plant since 1988. The Dixie Valley land parcels consist of 17,446 acres located within the structural trend of the Dixie Valley Geothermal Field. The Brady/Desert Peak land parcel is comprised of 657 acres of geothermal lease rights. The Brady and Desert Peak geothermal power plants, both operated by Ormat, produce 26 MW and 12.5 MW respectively.

SGP’s President and CEO, Gary Thompson, states “We are encouraged by the potential for power generation in this area and its proximity to transmission infrastructure.”

Twenty-five of the United States have adopted Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) to stimulate the development of renewable energy. The State of Nevada has adopted an RPS that requires utilities to have 20% of their electricity supplied from renewable sources by 2015. The California RPS requires 20% of electricity sold to come from renewable energy by 2010.

This set of parcels adds great potential to Sierra’s Tier III holdings. The company continues to develop Tier I projects like Reese River, Pumpernickle, Alum, and Silver Peak. For a detailed listing of Sierra’s projects, visit their corporate website.

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After writing about the BLM land auction last week we said we’d correct any information that wasn’t right once the results were posted. Well, the results have been posted and here are the California corrections:

• We believed Binkley Geo Resources won two parcels. In fact, they won one 470 acre parcel.
• We believed Calpine was an active bidder, that bidder is identified as Geysers Power Company LLC. The street address associated with the entity still has us under the belief it is a subsidiary of Calpine (10350 Socrates Mine Rd in Middletown, CA.)
• The successful bidders were: Geysers Power Company LLC (2 parcels), High Valley LLC (2 parcels), Kelsy South LLC (1 parcel), and Binkley Geo Resources (1 parcel).

Moving on to Nevada, the changes have to do with bidders, we don’t believe we reported any errors, but have now identified successful bidders.

• In order of number of parcels won, the successful bidders were: Ormat Nevada Inc (22 parcels), Sierra Geothermal Power Inc (9 parcels), Raser Power Systems LLC (4 parcels), Alexandra Kingzett (2 parcels), Silver State Geothermal LLC (2 parcels), and one parcel each First Covenant Construction, Kodali Inc, Miller Dusty LLC, and Montara Energy Ventures.

Detailed results of the sale have been posted at the BLM California and Nevada web sites.

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Ormat International, parent company of Ormat, announced today that they’ve been awarded the contract to build and operate a 340MW facility in Indonesia called the Sarulla Project. This is a joint venture between Japan’s Itochu and Indonesia’s Medco Energi Internasional Tbk that amounts to an estimated $800M investment.

At present, Indonesia has geothermal capacity of about 787MW and estimated geothermal potential of over 20,000MW.

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There’s a new movie on the horizon called The 11th Hour. It’s a Leonardo DiCaprio project and it looks promising. If you liked An Inconvenient Truth, you might also want to catch this film.

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Via Yahoo News:

PROVO, Utah–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Raser Technologies, Inc. (NYSE Arca: RZ) announced today that it emerged as the successful bidder for the geothermal rights on four parcels of Federal property totaling approximately 15,000 acres in central Nevada.

On August 14, 2007, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) conducted a competitive auction of lease parcels for geothermal energy resources on Federal public lands in Nevada and California covering approximately 125,000 acres, 98% of which were Nevada properties. Raser won the bidding on 15,325 acres with a total price of approximately $620,000, or $40 per acre.

The term of the BLM geothermal leases is ten years with renewal rights for up to forty years beyond the primary term if the lessee is producing or using geothermal resources in commercial quantities.

This release syncs entirely with our observations at the auction.

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