Utilities sign for renewable supplies

Sierra Pacific Resources last week said it has signed six contracts

with renewable energy suppliers in an effort to meet regulations

that require utilities to use alternative energy sources.

The contracts cover both of the holding company's power

companies, Nevada Power Co. in Las Vegas and Sierra Pacific

Power Co. in Reno.

The Nevada law requires that utilities increase their use of

renewable energy sources by 2 percent every third year until

solar, wind geothermal and/or biomass account for 15 percent

of the utilities power supplies.

Sierra Pacific will file the contracts with the Public Utilities

Commission to be sure they bring the company into compliance.

The contracts are for 227 megawatts of power. Over half

that is from wind generation, and the rest is from geothermal

sources.

The providers are Desert Queen Wind Limited Partnership

in Clark County; Advanced Thermal Systems, which is building

a Kalina cycle binary geothermal plant in Washoe County;

Earth Power Resources Inc., building a similar plant in Elko

County; subsidiaries of Ormat Nevada Inc., which is building a

flash-steam and binary geothermal plant in Churchill County;

and Ely Wind Co. LLC, which is building a wind generation

plant in White Pine County.

In 2000, Nevada produced 195.7 megawattts of geothermal

power at 10 sites, according to the International Geothermal

Association. In the United States, geothermal energy usage has

dropped since the 1990s, according to the association. In 1990,

capacity was 2,774 megawatts, but fell to 2,228 megawatts in

2000. The association projects that U.S. capacity will reach

2,376 megawatts by 2005.