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| (Tim Wright/Courtesy photo) |
Ormat Technologies, owners of Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV), revealed in a Wednesday earnings call that reopening the power plant would take at least 18 months.
Isaac Angel, CEO of Ormat, said in the company’s second-quarter earnings call on Wednesday that reopening PGV as soon as possible is a priority, but even when conditions at the facility are safe enough to resume operations, the reactivation process will take time.
“Unfortunately, as we all know, it’s very, very difficult to estimate how long the Puna flow will continue, even though there is (a) decrease,” Angel said. “In any case, if the flow will … stop completely, or even it could be very slow, we will be able to look into bringing the power plant back. It will take us at least 18 months to do so.”
The plant was shut down in early May after the lower Puna eruption of Kilauea. Geothermal wells were quenched with cold water and sealed, with three of the wells subsequently overrun by lava. Lava also consumed a warehouse and a substation.