DOE warms to geothermal energy

One of the largest geothermal fields in the world is The Geysers near San Francisco

By Environmental News Network staff

Just below Earth's surface is a virtually limitless supply of energy.

It isn't coal, oil or natural gas. It's raw heat.

The Harry Blundell Geothermal Plant in Roosevelt Hot Springs, Utah, has used Earth's heat to generate power since 1982. Drawing super-heated water from an underground reservoir nearly a mile underground and using the steam to drive turbines, the plant pumps 20 megawatts of clean electricity into the grid.

The Blundell plant has been "cooking along for sometime," said Marshall Ralph of Power Engineers in Hailey, Idaho. And yet, Ralph said, its energy stores are not being tapped to their potential.

The same can be said about the United States in general. Even though geothermal energy has been used to generate electricity in the country since the early 1920s, it is a largely underdeveloped energy source in America.

A new initiative, introduced recently by the U.S. Department of Energy, may change all that. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson last week confirmed 21 partnerships between the DOE and private industry to promote the development and use of geothermal energy in the western United States.

Power Engineers, an engineering consultancy that advises PacifiCorp, owner of the Blundell plant, is one of the partners.

Powered by DOE grants and matching funds from private industry, the partnerships are designed to expand the use of geothermal energy to bring electricity and geothermal heat to residents and businesses in California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah.

"Clean, reliable and renewable energy sources such as geothermal energy can become a significant contributor to the energy mix in the West at a time when parts of the region are experiencing power supply shortages," said Richardson.

A map of the United States pinpoints geothermal energy stores. Click on the image to see a larger version

The subsidies, which total $3.5 million for the first year, focus on three areas: the development of small-scale geothermal electric plants, advanced geothermal technology and exploration of undiscovered geothermal resources.

"It's astonishing how (the grant program) has changed the landscape of exploratory research for geothermal development," said Ralph.

Power Engineers received about $200,000 in DOE funds to work on geothermal technology applications for the Blundell plant.

"It's not a lot but it is sufficient to develop the geothermal conceptual design," Ralph said.

The company will investigate the potential to drill more wells into the Blundell reservoir for increased production. Power also plans to explore more ways to use the hot water.

After hot water from the reservoir is used to create steam for electricity turbines, it is pumped back into the ground to reheat. The water is still very hot — 345 degrees Fahrenheit — and contains vast amounts of exploitable energy.

Developing energy technologies for water at this temperature could have implications for geothermal sources cooler than that found at Roosevelt Hot Springs.

"We are trying to apply a more efficient system that is commercially applicable to low temperature resources," said Ralph.

Copyright 2000, Environmental News Network, All Rights Reserved

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Power Engineers
PacifiCorp
U.S. Department of Energy
   •Geothermal Energy Program
   •GeoPowering the West
geothermal energy
Geothermal Resources Council

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