Note 4 - Unconsolidated Investments

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2015

Equity Method Investments and Joint Ventures [Abstract]

Equity Method Investments and Joint Ventures Disclosure [Text Block]

NOTE 4 — UNCONSOLIDATED INVESTMENTS

Unconsolidated investments consist of the following:

	September 30,			December 31,
	2015			2014
	(Dollars in thousands)
Sarulla	$	(12,667	)	$	(3,617	)

The Sarulla Project

The Company is a 12.75% member of a consortium which is in the process of developing the Sarulla geothermal power project in Indonesia with expected generating capacity of approximately 330 megawatts (“MW”). The Sarulla project is located in Tapanuli Utara, North Sumatra, Indonesia and will be owned and operated by the consortium members under the framework of a Joint Operating Contract (“JOC”) and Energy Sales Contract (“ESC”) that were signed on April 4, 2013. Under the JOC, PT Pertamina Geothermal Energy (“PGE”), the concession holder for the project, has provided the consortium with the right to use the geothermal field, and under the ESC, PT PLN, the state electric utility, will be the off-taker at Sarulla for a period of 30 years. In addition to its equity holdings in the consortium, the Company designed the Sarulla plant and will supply its Ormat Energy Converters (“OECs”) to the power plant, as further described below. 

The project is being constructed in three phases of approximately 110 MW each, utilizing both steam and brine extracted from the geothermal field to increase the power plant’s efficiency. The first phase of operations is expected to commence towards the end of 2016 and the remaining two phases of operations are scheduled to commence within 18 months thereafter. Engineering, procurement and construction (“EPC”) are in progress. The infrastructure work has been substantially completed and major equipment, including Ormat’s partial OECs and Toshiba’s steam turbine, have arrived in country. The drilling of production and injection wells is also in progress in all three phases. However, the project company is experiencing delays in drilling and reaching EPC milestones, as well as cost overruns, mainly in the field development of the second and third phases of the project. The consortium members are currently examining the significance of these cost overruns and their implications for the project's budget as well as for the financing of the project (described below).

On May 16, 2014, the consortium closed $1.17 billion in financing for the development of the Sarulla project with a consortium of lenders comprised of Japan Bank for International Cooperation (“JBIC”), the Asian Development Bank and six commercial banks and obtained construction and term loans on a limited recourse basis backed by a political risk guarantee from JBIC. Of the $1.17 billion, $0.1 billion (which was drawn down by the Sarulla project company on May 23, 2014) bears a fixed interest rate and $1.07 billion bears interest at a rate linked to LIBOR.

The Sarulla consortium entered into interest rate swap agreements with various international banks in order to fix the Libor interest rate on up to $0.96 billion of the $1.07 billion credit facility at a rate of 3.4565%. The interest rate swap became effective as of June 4, 2014 along with the second draw-down by the project company of $50.0 million.

The Sarulla project company accounted for the interest rate swap as a cash flow hedge upon which changes in the fair value of the hedging instrument, relative to the effective portion, will be recorded in other comprehensive income. As such, during the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the project recorded a loss equal to $32.6 million, of which the Company's share was $4.2 million which was recorded in other comprehensive income. The related accumulated loss recorded by the Company as of September 30, 2015 is $12.3 million.

Pursuant to a supply agreement that was signed in October 2013, the Company is supplying its OECs to the power plant and has added the $255.6 million supply contract to its product segment backlog. All of the scheduled milestones under Ormat’s supply agreement were achieved and the manufacturing work is currently progressing as planned. The Company started to recognize revenue from the project during the third quarter of 2014 and will continue to recognize revenue over the course of the next two to three years. The Company has eliminated the related intercompany profit of $5.2 million against equity in loss of investees.

During the nine months ended September 30, 2015, the Company did not make any additional investment contributions to the Sarulla project.