Shoshone start work on geothermal plant

The Northwestern Band of Shoshone Nation, based in Brigham City, Utah, announced that it has broken ground for the tribe's first geothermal plant, a $500 million facility which could provide up to 100 megawatts of power.

The tribe is working with Utah's Idatherm and Ireland's LotusWorks on the development of the plant. LotusWorks and Boston's Meridian Investments will finance, build and operate the geothermal station.

In July, the tribe signed a long term agreement to provide up to 64 MW of power from the planned Shoshone Renaissance plant in Box Elder County, Utah, to the city of Riverside, Calif.

The financial terms of that 30 year agreement were not disclosed.

"We are very excited to enter into this agreement, which continues our commitments to providing our customers with reliable energy resources while increasing our renewable portfolio goals for the city," said David Wright, general manger of Riverside Public Utilities, in a statement earlier this year.

At full capacity, the 64 MW received from the new facility is expected to provide 20 percent of Riverside's baseload energy needs.

The Shoshone Renaissance plant will be built in three phases, with the first 32 MW phase of construction scheduled to be complete and producing energy in early 2010 and the second 32 MW unit going online approximately one year later.