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Exorka gains 3 production permits in Germany
Exorka, a subsidiary of Geysir Green Energy, has finalised the purchase of three operating permits for geothermal power plants to be located in Bavaria, Germany. Exorka held one permit in Germany prior to these developments. These planned plants will utilise Kalina technology to create electricity from resources that are too low in temperature to produce electricity using conventional geothermal technology. Plans are underway to drill the 3-5 km deep wells required to extract the fluid and electricty production is scheduled to begin in 2009. The permits allow Exorka to build plant with a total of 15-25 MW of capacity. The total investment level required can reach up to 230 million euro. This is in direct response to the German government’s policy changes designed to encourage the production of electricity from geothermal sources by subsidising the wholesale price to about 2.5 times its market value. Exorka, ehf was founded in 2001 by Icelandic utility Húsavík Energy and three Icelandic engineering firms; VGK in Reykjavík, Útrás in Akureyri and Taeknithing in Húsavík. The aim was to design, develop and sell power plant that utlises Kalina technology. Kalina allows for the production of electricity from a low-temperature resource by using a mixture of ammonia and water to power a turbine and was developed by Dr. Alexander Kalina. Exorka has the rights to use and distribute this technology in Europe. Exorka became a subsidiary of Geysir Green Energy when Geysir was formed in January of this year. Geysir has since made considerable investments in geothermal projects all over the world and considers the developments in Germany another important step in the spread of the use of the environmentally-friendly geothermal energy.