Amatitlan Geothermal Facility

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The Amatitlan Geothermal Facility was a 20MW power plant located near the town and lake of the same name, 28km south-east of Guatemala's capital, Guatemala City, Guatamala. The Amatitlan Geothermal Facility was owned by Ortitlan Limitada a wholly-owned subsidiary,Omrat Technologies, Inc [USA]. It was constructed in the fourth quarter of 2006 through equity contributions from its sponsor. The plant was Ormat's second in the country, following its involvement in Zunil, a 24MW facility that came online in 1999. Ormat was the engineering, procurement, and construction contractor on that project, using its own technology, and gradually built up a stake in the plant from original investors CDC, the IFC and FMO. It took complete ownership of the Zunil plant in 2006. The sponsor, which evolved from being an equipment supplier to contractor to developer and owner, signed the 20 year power purchase agreement (PPA) for Amatitlan in 2003. The PPA in turn, evolved from a tender for capacity that the INDE issued in 1999. It originally planned to finance the project with the Inter-American Development Bank, but was unable to reach terms with the lender. The plant became operational in March 2007, initiating the PPA which was scheduled end in 2028. The remaining capacity was sold to a private company and the spot market. As of December 31, 2008, the power plant generated nearly 17 MW and was scheduled to reach its designed capacity of 20MW towards the end of the second quarter of 2009. The Amatitlan project was registered under the CDM (Clean Development Mechanism) on December 12, 2008. Under CDM the project will be eligible to receive certified emission reduction ("CER") credits, each equivalent to one tone of carbon dioxide, which can be traded or sold. The Project has a long term contract to sell all Amatitlan's CERs to a buyer domiciled in Europe. Figures were converted to USD based on the market rate, period average for 2008 published by the IMF.