Ormat Technologies, Inc announced that its subsidiary has entered into a US$5.7m agreement with Italcementi Group for the supply of one ORMAT(R) ENERGY CONVERTER (OEC) for a new Recovered Energy Generation (REG) plant. The plant is to be installed in the Martinsburg, West Virginia cement plant, belonging to Essroc, an Italcementi subsidiary in the USA. The equipment is to be supplied within 14 months from the contract date.  
 
Construction of the recovered energy power plant utilizing the readily installed and largely pre-assembled OEC is being undertaken by the Italcementi Group itself. When completed, the OEC power plant will convert unused exhaust air from the cement plant’s clinker cooler into electric power.  
 
Lucien Y. Bronicki, Chairman of the Board and Chief Technology Officer of Ormat Technologies, said: "This will be the first project in the USA utilizing exclusively clinker cooler exhaust air for power generation. The relatively low temperatures and varying loads of clinker cooler exhaust air in cement plants make conventional power solutions impractical, but is well suited for the Ormat’s Organic Rankine Cycle based OEC. An additional environmental advantage of the OEC plant is that it uses air-cooled condensers rather than water consuming cooling towers."  
 
"The power plant will generate fuel-free electrical power, substituting fossil-fuel power and avoiding approximately 26,000t of CO2 emissions per year. This contract marks our third Recovered Energy Generation plant in the cement industry, adding to our Recovered Energy Generation systems in gas compressor stations, gas processing plants, refineries and others. We look forward to further applications of this type, which are well suited to Ormat’s technology. "