US Geothermal to become 100% owner of Idaho plant

US Geothermal Inc (NYSEAMERICAN:HTM) on Wednesday said it will own 100% of the Raft River geothermal power plant in southern Idaho after agreeing to acquire Goldman Sachs' (NYSE:GS) remaining ownership interest.

The facility, in operation since 2008, is a single, 18-MW (gross) module with a design output of 13 MW (net) annual average. US Geothermal acquired from its project partner Goldman Sachs the majority of the latter's cash flow interest in and ownership of the project in December 2015.

The company will purchase Goldman Sachs' remaining interest for USD 350,000 (EUR 295,000), with the deal to close on January 2, 2018.

"The acquisition of this remaining interest in Raft River will be immediately accretive to the Company, and further enables us to implement capital upgrades to increase output from the facility," said interim chief executive Douglas Glaspey.

The project has a 25-year power purchase agreement (PPA), signed in 2007, with the Idaho Power Company for the sale of up to 13 MW on an annual average basis.

In 2017 the average generation from the facility was increased by about 1.6 MW net via the addition of production well RRG-5, as well as upgrades to the injection system. The company is looking at increasing the capacity of production pump RRG-4 in 2018, which is expected to lead to generation increase of 0.6 MW to 0.7 MW net.

(USD 1 = EUR 0.843)

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