Renewable

April 5 (Renewables Now) - Spanish construction company Sacyr SA announced on Thursday it will build a 5.6-MW pilot geothermal plant in Bolivia.

The contract of USD 18 million (EUR 16m) has awarded to a consortium formed by subsidiary Sacyr Industrial and Ormat Technologies Inc (NYSE:ORA) in a tender held by Bolivian power company Ende Corporacion.

The facility, to be located in the department of Potosi, will be built at an altitude of 4,980 m, becoming the highest geothermal plant in the world.

Planned to be executed over 24 months, the pilot plant's goal is to assess the geothermal reserves of the Laguna Colorada area before a bigger, 100-MW plant is built in the same geothermal field.

The pilot plant consists of a binary cycle geothermal plant, which will use 132,000 kg/h of geothermal fluid at 170 degrees Celsius to generate electrical power. The output will be fed into the Bolivian National Interconnected System at a voltage of 230 kV, Sacyr noted.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.89)