MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's biggest utility, Enel, will launch two geothermal plants with a total capacity of 65 megawatt (MW) in Nevada in the first quarter of 2009 aiming to expand in the U.S. renewable energy market, it said on Monday.
The plants will produce about 400 million kilowatt hours of energy a year, enough to meet demands of about 40,000 U.S. households and reduce annual emissions of heat-trapping carbon dioxide by 300,000 tonnes, ENEL (ENEL.IT)said in a statement.
Enel, which operates about 700 MW of geothermal plants in Italy, is already present in the United States with one operating geothermal plant and has 150 MW worth of geothermal projects in the pipeline for Nevada, California and Utah.
Enel aims to sell a minority stake in its renewable energy unit, Enel Green Power, next year as part of efforts to reduce a debt pile taken on to buy Spain's Endesa last year.
(Reporting by Svetlana Kovalyova; editing by Sue Thomas)
