Ormat Technologies signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Switch to supply geothermal energy from its Salt Wells power plant in western Nevada. Salt Wells is located in Churchill County, near the city of Fallon, east of Reno and close to major regional transmission corridors serving northern Nevada.
Under the agreement, Switch will purchase approximately 13 MW of geothermal power from the Salt Wells facility. Ormat also retains the option to add an additional ~7 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) installation to support auxiliary loads at the geothermal plant, creating a hybrid geothermal-solar configuration. The combined output will support Switch’s Nevada data center operations as the company scales AI, cloud, and enterprise infrastructure in the region.
Energy deliveries are scheduled to begin in the first quarter of 2030, following a major upgrade to the Salt Wells plant that Ormat expects to complete by the second quarter of 2026. Ormat said the structure of the PPA improves the long-term economics of the facility and could serve as a framework for future recontracting across more than 100 MW of its existing geothermal portfolio.
- 20-year geothermal PPA between Ormat and Switch
- ~13 MW of geothermal power from the Salt Wells plant in Churchill County, Nevada
- Option to add ~7 MW solar PV to support plant auxiliary power
- First direct PPA between Ormat and a data center operator
- Energy deliveries planned for Q1 2030 following plant upgrades
“We are excited to partner with Switch, a leader in the data center industry, to supply reliable, zero-emission power from our Salt Wells geothermal facility,” said Doron Blachar, CEO of Ormat Technologies. “This agreement highlights the enhanced revenue opportunities and strategic value of our geothermal assets as demand from the data center sector continues to grow.”
🌐 Analysis
Ormat Technologies is one of the world’s largest geothermal power operators, with a vertically integrated model spanning resource development, power plant engineering, equipment manufacturing, and operations. The company operates a global geothermal and solar portfolio exceeding 1.2 GW and has expanded into grid-scale energy storage, with several hundred megawatts deployed or under development in the U.S. In recent years, Ormat has emphasized long-term contracted revenues, asset upgrades to extend plant life and output, and selective growth in storage and hybrid renewable projects to complement its geothermal base.
Switch is a large-scale data center campus developer and operator with a long-standing focus on Nevada as a core market. The company operates multi-campus facilities in northern and southern Nevada and has positioned itself around high-density, AI-ready infrastructure, including liquid-cooled deployments. Switch has also prioritized direct sourcing of renewable and carbon-free power to support long-duration, always-on workloads, adding geothermal to a portfolio that already includes solar and other Nevada-based energy resources.
🌐 We’re tracking the latest developments in AI infrastructure and data center power strategies. Follow our ongoing coverage at: https://convergedigest.com/category/data-centers/
