Update on Geothermal Washington
This blog is part of a short project known as "Geothermal Washington". the goal is to explore and comprehend the potential of geothermal energy in Washington State. This project is supported, in part, by Climate Solutions. The beginning of 2008 has seen a flurry of interest around geothermal in Washington State. The Op/Ed and Brown Bag has initiated the discussion and enquiry into geothermal.
Current media interest is high. McClatchy Newspapers picked up the topic and the article by Les Blumenthal was run in the Tacoma Tribune, Bellingham Herald, and Seattle Times. The Columbian had an editorial that was picked up in the State Editorial coverage by the Seattle Times. Several blogs have picked up on the coverage. It has also been mentioned that the Skagit Paper is writing a story. Real Change’s editor have a story but it has not run. The Daily journal of Commerce has assigned its environmental reporter to cover the topic.
General interest in the blog was initially high following the launch (several hundred) , but has trailed off significantly to barely registering double digits in daily activity.
This project has initiated some interesting thinking on geothermal in Washington State. The rational thinking quickly points to the Cascades and its potential. Interest in Eastern Washington has been higher than expected and given its land status speaks to a long term proposition that ‘farmers’ will track now that they see what wind has been. One Spokane blogger extrapolated the analogy of Nevada as the Saudi Arabia of geothermal to Eastern Washington being the "Kuwait" of geothermal given our respective northern positions. The Rain curtain that masks the hot springs with the constant low cooler flows has led to a lot of nods in comprehension. The transmission value of geothermal on the western Cascades is quickly realized as an important proposition for planning and development in the State.
Senator Adam Kline has expressed interest in running a study bill. The State Geology Survey has offered to act as the report submitting State Agency. The short legislative session offers little promise of success. But the goal here is to begin the conversation on geothermal in Washington State. In this case, a broad list of stakeholders is being welcome to participate in helping the State understand this resource.
Outside of Washington State, geothermal energy moves apace. The GEA announced that the 2,936 MW of installed geothermal capacity in the U.S. is soon to be matched by an additional 3,368 MW under development. The next step of Geothermal Washington is to engage the national and industrial tipping points that will accelerate the development of geothermal.
Politically, the next steps ought to be to ask for a Geothermal Task Group in the same way that the pro-nukes are pushing for a pair of bills Anderson, HB 2737 and Delvin SB 6568
to create the joint legislative task force on nuclear energy. Once created, such a task force can obtain funding for a more precise heat flow study of our geothermal resources. Perhaps we won’t need to make ourselves dependent on another imported fuel - uranium.
From a Geological Standpoint, although heatflow maps such as this one from the Idaho National Labs already exist, http://geothermal.inl.gov/maps/wa.pdf , the next step is to generate an accurate surface heatflow map of the Columbia Basin that can be used pinpoint the high-temperature geothermal resources. Temperature measurements need to be taken at intervals in shallow test wells to predict the heat flow down to 10,000 km, where the high-temperature geothermal resources are.