Work on Casa Diablo geothermal plant now underway

Includes drilling two new geothermal wells near Shady Rest

Mammoth Pacific Geothermal, an Ormat Company, has begun construction on the Casa Diablo-iv (CD4) geothermal project located to the northeast of Mammoth Lakes off of the Sheriff’s Substation Road.

The new construction includes drilling new wells near the popular Shady Rest area. Ormat is authorized by the US Forest Service to continue work through the recent California National Forest closure, the company said in a recent news release.

Specifically, Ormat said, “upcoming activities include drilling new geothermal wells at two sites near Shady Rest, building a new power plant east of U.S. Highway 395, and installing pipelines that connect the wells to the power plant.”

Construction vehicles and heavy equipment will be present and operating in the area throughout the construction period, they said in a news release. “The public is advised to be aware of heavy equipment and remain outside of marked areas,” they said. “There are no planned route closures.”

The state-of-the-art project is expected to provide 30MW of electricity for 22,000 homes while offsetting 4 million tons of CO2. It’s estimated that the project will bring over $13 million to the region and will create more than 180 construction jobs, Ormat said. Mammoth Pacific Geothermal currently employs 25 full-time people and expects to bring on additional employees as a result of the CD4 project, they said.

The CD4 power plant is expected to be online in early 2022. It will be the first geothermal power plant built within the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) balancing authority in the last 30 years and will be the first in Ormat’s portfolio to sell its output to a Community Choice Aggregator, they said.

This work is exempted from Regional Order No.

21-07 (Emergency Forest Closure) pursuant to 36 C.F.R § 261.50(e)(3) Persons with a Forest Service

special use authorization for an electric transmission line, an oil, [geothermal] or gas pipeline, communications site, or any other non-recreational special use.

IF YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE

For more information, email info@ormat.com.