Sierra Geothermal to hold vote on bigger board

* Shareholder meeting, vote Jan. 26

* To decide on increase in directors to 13 from 6

* To vote on 7 directors proposed by Exploration Partners

OTTAWA, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Canadian green power developer Sierra Geothermal Power Corp SRA.V will hold a shareholders meeting Jan. 26 to vote on enlarging its board of directors to 13 members from six, with the seven new directors proposed by a key U.S. investor.

Exploration Partners 2005 Ltd Partnership of Carlsbad, California, holds more than 5 percent of Sierra's shares and requested the meeting and the board enlargement, Sierra said.

Sierra, which will hold the meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, said late on Thursday that it is preparing an information circular for shareholders that will include the request from Exploration Partners.

Sierra has geothermal projects in Nevada and California with a combined capacity estimated at more than 500 megawatts. It plans to finance development of the sites with a combination of corporate equity, joint venture partnerships, debt and U.S. government grants and loan guarantees.

In late September the company increased the size of a private placement to C$7 million ($6.7 million) from C$4 million and said the funds were earmarked to advance its Nevada properties.

Geothermal power is produced by piping super heated water from far below ground and releasing steam at surface level to spin turbines and produce electricity.

Shares in Sierra fell 5 percent, or 1.5 Canadian cents, to 27.5 Canadian cents in early trade on the TSX Venture Exchange on Friday. The stock has climbed about 95 percent year-to-date. ($1=$1.05 Canadian) (Reporting by Susan Taylor; editing by Peter Galloway)