Solar power stops at night. Wind stops when the air goes still. The heat a few thousand feet under Nevada never stops at all, and a Reno company has spent sixty years turning it into electricity.
Ormat Technologies is not a startup, and that is the point. It was founded in 1965 by Lucien and Dita Bronicki, built on Lucien's patents for converting modest heat into power. The company perfected the binary geothermal cycle, a closed system that can make electricity from water far cooler than a traditional steam plant needs, which is what makes Nevada's geothermal resource usable in the first place. Dita Bronicki led the company to its New York Stock Exchange listing in 2004. Today Ormat trades as ORA, is headquartered in Reno, and is one of the largest geothermal companies in the world.
What sixty years builds
Ormat does three things at once. It develops, owns, and operates power plants. It manufactures and sells the geothermal equipment, turbines, generators, and heat exchangers, that other operators use. And it runs grid-connected energy storage. Across all of it, the company operates on the order of 1,800 megawatts of generating capacity, has built more than 190 power plants, and holds roughly 400,000 acres of geothermal leases across six states. It is a real business with real earnings: trailing revenue above $1.1 billion and a market value around $8 billion in 2026, with record quarterly results to start the year.
Nevada runs on heat
Nevada is one of the most geothermally productive places in the country, and Ormat is the company that has tapped it most. Its Nevada plants read like a map of the state's hidden energy: the Steamboat complex south of Reno, the McGinness Hills complex out east, Don A. Campbell, Tuscarora, Salt Wells, and more. Unlike a solar farm, these plants produce steady baseload power day and night, every day of the year. That reliability used to be a quiet virtue. Now it is the whole game.
Geothermal meets AI
The data centers powering the AI boom need enormous amounts of electricity, and they need it constantly, not just when the sun is up. Geothermal is one of the only carbon-free sources that delivers exactly that. In 2026 the deals started landing. Ormat signed a long-term agreement to provide up to 150 megawatts of new geothermal capacity through NV Energy to support Google's operations in Nevada, with projects slated to come online from 2028 to 2030. It signed a separate 20-year agreement with Switch, the Las Vegas data-center company, to supply carbon-free geothermal power from its Salt Wells facility. To make more of the resource reachable, Ormat introduced the Ormega100, billed as the largest binary unit in the industry, aimed at next-generation enhanced geothermal systems.
"AI is fundamentally increasing electricity demand, and geothermal is uniquely positioned to deliver the reliable, carbon-free power required to support that growth."
Why it matters for Nevada
Ormat is a global company that chose to run itself from Reno, and it has been here so long that it is easy to forget how rare that is. It pays skilled energy-sector wages in Northern Nevada, and it puts the state at the center of a national story: how to power the AI build-out without burning more carbon. Nevada happens to be sitting on the answer, and the company best positioned to deliver it is headquartered downtown. Other players are arriving on the same bet, including next-generation geothermal developers drilling elsewhere in the state, but Ormat has been proving the model for six decades.
The optimistic version of Nevada's energy future is not imported. It is underground, it never switches off, and a Reno company has been quietly bringing it to the surface since 1965.
Reporting drawn from Ormat's investor releases, GlobeNewswire, Investing News, Switch, and Wikipedia, among others. Figures are as of early to mid 2026 and may move: revenue (above $1.1 billion trailing), market capitalization (around $8 billion), and capacity (roughly 1,800 megawatts) are drawn from public filings and reporting. The pull-quote is attributed to CEO Doron Blachar in 2026 coverage. Next-generation geothermal developers active elsewhere in Nevada are separate companies. The hero image is original illustration; we will swap in licensed or company-provided photography when available.