- Ormat Technologies (Ormat) has announced the signing of a 13-year power purchase agreement with Switch.
- Energy delivery under the PPA is scheduled to commence by the first quarter of 2030.
Ormat Technologies (Ormat) has announced the signing of a 13-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Switch, the premier provider of AI, cloud, and enterprise data centres.
Under the PPA, Switch will purchase approximately 13 MW of power from Ormat’s Salt Wells geothermal power plant located near Fallow, Nevada, with an option to further expand the output to Switch by adding an approximately 7 MW Solar PV facility. This will help power Switch’s Nevada data centres.
“We are excited to partner with Switch, a leader in the data centre industry, to supply reliable, zero-emission power from our Salt Wells geothermal facility. This agreement not only advances Switch’s sustainability goals but also underscores the growing demand for renewable energy within the data centre sector,” said Doron Blachar, CEO of Ormat.
Energy delivery under the PPA is scheduled to commence by the first quarter of 2030. This will be after the completion of a major upgrade to the Salt Wells power plant, which is expected to be finalised by the second quarter of 2026. The Salt Wells geothermal power plant is one of the assets that Ormat acquired from Enel Green Power North America back in 2023, as ThinkGeoEnergy reported.
“We are proud to enhance our diverse portfolio of renewable, Nevada-based energy sources and deepen our commitment to powering Switch’s data centres with renewable energy through this new long-term agreement with Ormat,” said Alise Porto, SVP of Energy & Sustainability at Switch.
“As demand for AI and high-performance digital infrastructure accelerates, securing reliable, carbon-free baseload power is essential to supporting our customers and sustaining our growth. Geothermal energy offers the resiliency and sustainability profile required for the next generation of AI and cloud workloads, and this partnership enhances our ability to deliver world-class performance with a minimal environmental footprint.”
The increasing demand for data centres is proving to be a significant growth driver for the geothermal power industry in recent years, with companies like Meta and Google signing PPAs with or investing in geothermal developers in the USA, Taiwan, and other countries.