The Nicaraguan subsidiary of Canada-based Polaris Geothermal Inc. has announced that it hired Brazilian construction giant Queiroz Galvão for a project to more than triple the output from a geothermal complex northwest of Managua, newswire ACAN EFE reports.

Polaris Energy Nicaragua S.A. (PENSA) said Monday it has signed a contract to increase capacity of the San Jacinto-Tizate project from 10 megawatts to 34 megawatts. (One megawatt is enough electricity to power 1,000 average homes in the United States.)

PENSA has exclusive rights since December 1999 to exploit energy coming from the heat of the Earth in the San Jacinto-Tizate field.

Part of the expansion works are already under way with the construction of four wells, two for production and two for reinjection, PENSA said.

The investment planned for this phase of expansion, to be completed in 2009, is $96 million and will create 600 new jobs, the company said.

The contract was signed by PENSA's president, Tom Ogryzlo, and Queiroz Galvão's marketing director, Mauricio Mariani, although the date of the agreement was not specified.

Currently, 75 percent of the electricity that Nicaragua consumes, some 510 megawatts daily, is generated from petroleum fuels that experience constant price increases.

PRENSA's announcement came after last week's find by another Canadian firm in Nicaragua, Norwood Resources Ltd. Norwood said it has stumbled upon “significant hydrocarbons” in its third exploratory well in Nicaragua, sending its stock soaring, The Canadian Press reported.