04-20-2015, 01:44 AM
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/loc...nt-company
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The owner of Puna Geothermal Venture has two weeks remaining to file an answer to a complaint alleging it defrauded the federal government of $13.8 million in stimulus funds to cover an expansion at the plant.
Ormat Industries, the parent company of Hawaii Island’s only geothermal power plant, “engaged in a scheme to obtain federal grant money under (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) for geothermal energy projects which did not qualify for payment, and have misused and abused the federal funds they have received in order to falsely support geothermal energy projects that the government never intended, or would allow,” according to an amended complaint filed in May 2014.
The civil suit, which was filed in Nevada District Court, alleges PGV’s original 30-megawatt capacity plant was advertised as generating 30 MW of electricity, but in actuality was producing “no more than 17 MW and that this inhibited production was causing Ormat’s revenues to decline by $1 million per month.”
In an effort to stanch those losses, the complaint reads, Ormat undertook an 8 MW expansion of the geothermal plant, which it then misrepresented as a standalone plant in order to qualify for the federal stimulus funds.
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The owner of Puna Geothermal Venture has two weeks remaining to file an answer to a complaint alleging it defrauded the federal government of $13.8 million in stimulus funds to cover an expansion at the plant.
Ormat Industries, the parent company of Hawaii Island’s only geothermal power plant, “engaged in a scheme to obtain federal grant money under (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) for geothermal energy projects which did not qualify for payment, and have misused and abused the federal funds they have received in order to falsely support geothermal energy projects that the government never intended, or would allow,” according to an amended complaint filed in May 2014.
The civil suit, which was filed in Nevada District Court, alleges PGV’s original 30-megawatt capacity plant was advertised as generating 30 MW of electricity, but in actuality was producing “no more than 17 MW and that this inhibited production was causing Ormat’s revenues to decline by $1 million per month.”
In an effort to stanch those losses, the complaint reads, Ormat undertook an 8 MW expansion of the geothermal plant, which it then misrepresented as a standalone plant in order to qualify for the federal stimulus funds.
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