RESTRICTED CASH AND BOND RESERVES
 12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2015
RESTRICTED CASH AND BOND RESERVES [Text Block]

NOTE 3 – RESTRICTED CASH AND BOND RESERVES

Under the terms of the loan agreements with the Department of Energy and Prudential Capital Group, various bond and cash reserves are required to provide assurances that the power plants will have the necessary funds to maintain expected operations and meet loan payment obligations. Restricted cash balances and bond reserves are summarized as follows:

Current restricted cash and bond reserves :

      December 31,  
 
Restricting Entities/Purpose
   2015     2014  
  Idaho Department of Water Resources, Geothermal Well Bond $ 260,000   $ 260,000  
  Bureau of Land Management, Geothermal Lease Bond- Gerlach   10,000     10,000  
  State of Nevada Division of Minerals, Statewide Drilling Bond   50,000     50,000  
  Bureau of Land Management, Geothermal Lease Bonds- USG Nevada   150,000     150,000  
  Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries, Mineral Land and Reclamation Program   400,000     400,000  
  Prudential Capital Group, Revenue Account   2,259     188,930  
  Prudential Capital Group, Debt Service Reserves   1,595,555     -  
  Bureau of Land Management, Geothermal Rights Lease Bond   10,000     10,000  
  U.S. Department of Energy, Debt Service Payment Account   2,118,193     2,151,851  
  State of California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, Well Cash Bond   100,000     100,000  
               
    $ 4,696,007   $ 3,320,781  

Long-term restricted cash and bond reserves:

      December 31,  
  Restricting Entities/Purpose   2015     2014  
  Nevada Energy, PPA Security Bond $ 1,468,898   $ 1,468,898  
  Prudential Capital Group, Debt Service Reserves   -     1,594,605  
  Prudential Capital Group, Maintenance Reserves   708,300     604,529  
  Prudential Capital Group, Well Reserves   314,590     212,298  
  U.S. Department of Energy, Operations Reserves   270,000     270,000  
  U.S. Department of Energy, Debt Service Reserves   2,542,058     2,582,606  
  U.S. Department of Energy, Short Term Well Field Reserves   4,507,110     4,505,150  
  U.S. Department of Energy, Long-Term Well Field Reserves   4,966,543     4,761,927  
  U.S. Department of Energy, Capital Expenditure Reserves   2,718,290     2,690,083  
               
    $ 17,495,789   $ 18,690,096  

The well bonding requirements ensure that the Company has sufficient financial resources to construct, operate and maintain geothermal wells while safeguarding subsurface, surface and atmospheric resources from unreasonable degradation, and to protect ground water aquifers and surface water sources from contamination. The debt service reserves are required to provide assurance that the Company will have sufficient funds to meet its debt payment obligations for the terms specified by the loan agreements. The maintenance and capital expenditure reserves are required by the lending entities to ensure that funds are available to acquire and maintain critical components of power plants and related supporting structures to enable the plants to operate according to expectations. Except for the PPA Security Bond, all of the restricted funds consisted of cash deposits or money market accounts held in commercial banks. Portions of the cash deposits are subject to FDIC insurance (see note 2 for details). The PPA Security Bond is held by the power purchaser. All of the reserve accounts were considered to be fully funded at December 31, 2015 and 2014.