# Ormat Technologies

**Type:** venture
**Status:** Draft
**Confidence:** Medium
**Tier:** C
**Focus:** geothermal energy, geothermal plant operations, binary-cycle equipment manufacturing, grid infrastructure
**Identifiers:** cik=0001296445, ein=88-0326081
**Roles:** hardware-engineering, field-skilled-trades, physical-sciences, manufacturing-operations, sales-business-development, legal-policy
**Stage:** Public company (NYSE: ORA), founded 1965; Utah plant owner-operator since January 2024
**Primary Location:** Reno, NV
**Utah Location:** Beaver County, UT
**Region:** Beaver County
**Domain:** energy
**Map Location:** Cove Fort geothermal power plant, 1185 East Sulphurdale Road, Cove Fort, UT 84713
**Coordinates:** 38.56028, -112.58111
**Location Precision:** exact
**Location Source:** https://www.gridinfo.com/plant/cove-fort/58570
**Website:** https://ormat.com
**Careers:** https://www.ormat.com/en/company/careers/main/
**Ownership:** public
**Updated:** 2026-08-11
**Needs-reviewed:** 2026-08-11
**Pull:** *Utah geothermal didn't start with Fervo — Ormat has owned, built, or supplied equipment to every operating plant in Beaver County, and now runs one of them.*
**Relates:** cites [Official Website: Ormat Technologies](ormat-technologies-official-website.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/ormat-technologies-official-website.md · https://ormat.com; cites [Official Source: Ormat Cove Fort Acquisition](ormat-cove-fort-acquisition.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/ormat-cove-fort-acquisition.md · https://investor.ormat.com/news-events/news/news-details/2024/Ormat-Completed-the-Acquisition-of-Contracted-Operating-Geothermal-and-Solar-Assets-From-Enel-Green-Power-North-America/default.aspx

## Summary

Ormat Technologies, Inc. (NYSE: ORA) is a Reno, Nevada-based geothermal company with roots back to 1965, and the only vertically integrated firm in its industry: it designs and manufactures its own binary-cycle power units (the Ormat Energy Converter), then builds, owns, and operates geothermal, recovered-energy, and energy-storage plants on top of them. In Utah, Ormat owns and operates the Cove Fort geothermal power plant in Beaver County — a 25 MW binary facility it acquired from Enel Green Power North America in January 2024 ([acquisition source](ormat-cove-fort-acquisition.md)) — and holds new Bureau of Land Management leases next to it for two additional plants, Cove Fort 2 and Cove Fort North.

Ormat's Utah relationship is older than that acquisition. Ormat Nevada Inc. supplied the binary "bottoming cycle" unit that expanded PacifiCorp's neighboring Blundell geothermal plant in 2007, and built and financed Cyrq Energy's Thermo No. 1 plant near Milford under a 2011 EPC contract. By the time Fervo Energy broke ground on Cape Station in 2023, Ormat equipment or ownership already touched every operating geothermal plant in the county.

For a reader researching Utah geothermal, Ormat is the conventional-hydrothermal counterpart that cold searches keep missing: a commercially operating owner-operator sitting a short drive from Cape Station and Utah FORGE, not a pre-commercial developer or exploration company.

## Impact

Ormat's Utah impact is not a moonshot claim; it is proven, revenue-generating baseload capacity already on the grid. Cove Fort has sold power to the Salt River Project under a long-term PPA since it was commissioned in 2013, and Ormat reports completing a 5 MW performance upgrade in June 2026 ([official website](ormat-technologies-official-website.md)). The depth of this impact is narrow but real: one operating plant, incrementally improved, plus two more plants staged for development on adjacent BLM leases.

The breadth case is more about ecosystem completeness than headline megawatts. Ormat's decades of equipment sales and EPC work at Blundell (PacifiCorp) and Thermo No. 1 (Cyrq Energy) mean Utah's conventional hydrothermal buildout has depended on the same company now expanding as an owner-operator. That gives Utah's geothermal cluster — Fervo's fracture-based EGS, Zanskar's exploration AI, Rodatherm's closed-loop pilot, and Utah FORGE's public research — a working commercial base case next door: geothermal that already pays for itself at a smaller, hydrothermal-resource scale, before any of the newer approaches prove out at theirs.

The bounds are set by resource geology and permitting pace, not technology risk: Cove Fort 2 and Cove Fort North depend on BLM lease exploration success and PPA off-take, the same constraints that have applied to Utah geothermal for decades. The counterfactual is not "no Utah geothermal" — Blundell predates Ormat's Utah ownership by 23 years — but a materially thinner operating base for anyone trying to argue Utah geothermal is already commercially proven, not just promising.

## What They Are Building

Cove Fort is a two-unit, 25 MW binary-cycle plant that has operated since December 2013, first under Enel Green Power, then Ormat since the January 2024 acquisition closed. Ormat paid $271 million for the whole Enel Green Power North America portfolio — Cove Fort plus Nevada's Salt Wells and Stillwater Hybrid plants and two greenfield development rights, one of which sits directly adjacent to Cove Fort ([acquisition source](ormat-cove-fort-acquisition.md)). In June 2026, Ormat reported completing a 5 MW upgrade at Cove Fort ([official website](ormat-technologies-official-website.md)).

In December 2024, Ormat secured 1,678 acres of Utah BLM leases specifically to support two new plants next to Cove Fort ([official website](ormat-technologies-official-website.md)). Company-wide portfolio, revenue, and employee figures need a captured annual filing before being repeated here.

## What They Need Now

Ormat's own careers portal and current external job listings point to plant-operations and engineering roles that would apply directly to Cove Fort — plant operators, operations-and-maintenance engineers, geochemists, and instrumentation/controls staff who keep a binary-cycle facility running — alongside corporate functions with clear geothermal-development ties: procurement/buyer roles for plant equipment, EGS/business-development roles tied to project growth (relevant to Cove Fort 2 and Cove Fort North), and legal/permitting counsel for BLM leasing and environmental review. These are drawn from Ormat's general hiring pattern (its own careers site and public job listings), not a confirmed Cove Fort-specific roster; Utah-specific current openings should be checked on Ormat's interactive jobs map rather than assumed from this page.

The candidate fit is strongest for people with hands-on power-plant operations, instrumentation, or field-service backgrounds — including from oil and gas or conventional power generation — plus geoscientists and land/permitting specialists who understand BLM lease processes in Beaver County.

## Who Could Help

Useful helpers include BLM permitting counsel and land-access specialists for the Cove Fort 2 / Cove Fort North exploration leases, utility interconnection and PPA counterparts (Salt River Project is Cove Fort's existing off-taker; PacifiCorp operates the neighboring Blundell plant and transmission), geothermal reservoir researchers who can connect Utah FORGE's public data to a working commercial site next door, and O&M/instrumentation contractors serving binary-cycle plants in the Great Basin.

## Utah Context

Beaver County is now home to at least three operating geothermal plants plus one of the country's most closely watched enhanced-geothermal projects and its dedicated federal research site — and Ormat's history touches all of the conventional ones. PacifiCorp's [Blundell](blundell-geothermal-plant.md) plant near Milford (operating since 1984, expanded in 2007 with an Ormat-supplied binary unit) and Cyrq Energy's Thermo No. 1 plant (built and financed by Ormat Nevada Inc. under a 2011 EPC contract, online since 2013) sit alongside Ormat's own Cove Fort. That makes Ormat both a direct Utah operator and, historically, the equipment/EPC supplier behind Utah's other conventional hydrothermal plants.

This gives the newer, higher-profile Utah geothermal cluster a working baseline: [Fervo Energy's](fervo-energy.md) Cape Station EGS project, [Zanskar Geothermal's](zanskar-geothermal.md) AI-driven exploration platform, [Rodatherm Energy's](rodatherm-energy.md) closed-loop sedimentary-basin pilot, and the DOE-funded [Utah FORGE](utah-forge.md) research site are all pursuing resource classes or techniques that conventional hydrothermal plants like Cove Fort, Blundell, and Thermo No. 1 cannot reach — but those three plants are proof that Beaver County geothermal already clears the bar of commercial operation, decades before any of the newer approaches need to.

## Evidence

- [Official Website: Ormat Technologies](ormat-technologies-official-website.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/ormat-technologies-official-website.md · https://ormat.com
- [Official Source: Ormat Cove Fort Acquisition](ormat-cove-fort-acquisition.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/ormat-cove-fort-acquisition.md · https://investor.ormat.com/news-events/news/news-details/2024/Ormat-Completed-the-Acquisition-of-Contracted-Operating-Geothermal-and-Solar-Assets-From-Enel-Green-Power-North-America/default.aspx
- Ormat Technologies Inc., "Ormat Technologies Inc. Secures Strategic Land Parcels in Utah BLM Auction to Advance Future Geothermal Development," Dec. 23, 2024 · https://www.utahbusiness.com/press-releases/2024/12/30/ormat-utah-blm-auction-geothermal-development/
- Ormat Q2 2026 earnings commentary (CEO Doron Blachar) confirming completion of the 5 MW Cove Fort upgrade in June 2026 · https://www.stocktitan.net/news/ORA/ormat-technologies-reports-second-quarter-2026-financial-w2l9r4j1ox8c.html
- EIA-860-derived plant record for Cove Fort (Plant ID 58570): 25 MW nameplate (two 12.5 MW binary units), address, coordinates, ownership history · https://www.gridinfo.com/plant/cove-fort/58570
- Deseret News, "PacifiCorp to boost geothermal plant," Apr. 12, 2006, confirming Ormat Nevada Inc.'s $11.5M contract to supply the Blundell Unit 2 binary equipment · https://www.deseret.com/2006/4/12/19947942/pacificorp-to-boost-geothermal-plant/
- Utah Geothermal Working Group meeting summary, Mar. 2007, Utah Geological Survey, corroborating the Ormat-supplied Blundell bottoming-cycle unit · https://geology.utah.gov/docs/emp/geothermal/ugwg/pdf/ugwg_mtg_summary0307.pdf
- Ormat Technologies Inc., "Ormat Signs an EPC Contract with Thermo No. 1 BE-01, LLC," Dec. 26, 2011, documenting Ormat Nevada Inc.'s EPC and financing agreement with Cyrq Energy subsidiary Thermo No. 1 BE-01, LLC · https://investor.ormat.com/news-events/news/news-details/2011/Ormat-Signs-an-EPC-Contract-with-Thermo-No-1-BE-01-LLC/default.aspx
- Cyrq Energy, "Our Locations," describing the 14.5 MW Thermo 1 plant near Minersville, UT, supplying the City of Anaheim, CA via PacifiCorp transmission · https://cyrqenergy.com/energy-plant-locations/
- EIA-860-derived plant record for Blundell (Plant ID 299): PacifiCorp-owned, ~33-38 MW combined nameplate, Beaver County, UT · https://www.gridalmanac.com/plants/blundell-utah

## See Also

- [Fervo Energy](fervo-energy.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/fervo-energy.md — enhanced-geothermal developer building Cape Station a short drive from Cove Fort
- [Zanskar Geothermal](zanskar-geothermal.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/zanskar-geothermal.md — AI-driven geothermal exploration; names Ormat among the developers its exploration platform could de-risk
- [Rodatherm Energy](rodatherm-energy.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/rodatherm-energy.md — closed-loop pilot targeting sedimentary basins that conventional plants like Cove Fort cannot access
- [Utah FORGE](utah-forge.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/utah-forge.md — DOE-funded enhanced-geothermal field laboratory in the same Beaver County corridor
- [Blundell](blundell-geothermal-plant.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/blundell-geothermal-plant.md — PacifiCorp's neighboring geothermal plant near Milford
- [Cyrq Energy](cyrq-energy.md) · https://greatutah.work/pages/cyrq-energy.md — operates Thermo No. 1 near Milford

## Open Questions

- Cove Fort 2's targeted 2027 commercial operation date is explicitly conditioned by Ormat on "resource availability"; verify exploration results before treating it as a committed timeline.
- No confirmed count of current Cove Fort-specific job openings: Ormat's careers site and jobs map are JavaScript-rendered and did not return Utah-specific listings to this fetcher. A human applicant should use https://www.ormat.com/en/company/careers/jobs-map/ directly.
- Relative plant sizing has not been independently verified beyond the cited plant records; treat all capacity figures here as nameplate or EIA-reported capacity, not generation.