Investors won big on Thursday after an $85 million company received a $58 million grant.

Toronto-listed Nevada Geothermal Power (OTC: NGLPF - News), which trades over the counter in the U.S., is up 11% today after the U.S. Department of the Treasury approved it for a $57.9 million grant in lieu of tax credits relating to the company's Faulkner 1 plant. NGP said the funds will be allocated to additional drilling and pipeline projects.

The Faulkner 1 geothermal plant is currently producing 27 net megawatts of power at a sustainable rate. According to the press release, output will grow upon the addition of three deep wells. With additional fluid production, the company expects net output of the plant to reach 47 megawatts.

The news isn't doing much to help other components of the Geothermal Stocks Index today. Currently, three of the Index's four components have market caps below $100 million, and they've all gotten smaller over the last month.

Raser Technologies (NYSE: RZ - News), which traded for more than $17 in late-2007 is now 12 cents from penny-stock territory. The stock has slipped by more than -30% in the last month, as the company offered additional shares in an effort to help settle debt.

U.S. Geothermal (AMEX: HTM - News) is the sector's top performer over the last month, losing only -2.6%. The stock remains more than 350% above its 52-week low of less than 40 cents a share.

As of the most recent 13F filings with the SEC, four Pros counted Nevada-based Ormat Technologies (NYSE: ORA - News) among their top-15 U.S.-listed equity holdings. Ormat's stock has slipped by -8% in the last month.

As of this writing, the Geothermal Stocks Index is one of the 40 worst-performing tickerspy Indexes over the last month, down by -8%.

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