North of the Hot Zone

In an article covered by the Idaho Business Review, the prospects of geothermal in Washington State are contrasted against cheap hydropower. 

"For states like Idaho, Washington and Oregon, which are dominated by relatively cheap hydro power, the competition is low-cost power,” said Doug Glaspey, COO of Boise-based U.S. Geothermal. “In California, energy costs are around $100 per megawatt. In Idaho, people don’t want to pay any more than $60 or $70 per megawatt.”

The link to the article is here

Tags: Market, Western US by Lawrence Molloy
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The U.S. Dept. of Interior has moved forward with opening additional lands for geothermal development in the Cascades.  The action follows on a multi year EIS conducted by Interior.  Lands available for leasing will NOT include Wilderness areas and National Parks.  Initial lease sales will take place in December, 2008 for properties on the eastern slope of the Southern Cascades in Central Oregon and Idaho.  Additional properties throughout the Western United States, and Washington can be nominated by geothermal developers. 

A link to the Dept. of Interior report is here.

From the Interior Press Release

….the initiative could produce 5,540 megawatts of new electric generation capacity from geothermal resources by 2015. That’s enough to meet the power needs of 5.5 million homes. The plan also estimates an additional 6,600 megawatts by 2025 for a total of 12,100 megawatts – enough to power more than 12 million homes.
When put into action by a Record of Decision, the plan would identify about 118 million acres of Bureau of Land Management managed public lands and 79 million acres of National Forest System lands for future geothermal leasing….

Tags: Market, National, News, Western US by Lawrence Molloy
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The BLM and Forest Service will hold one of 13 public meetings in Seattle on July 28, 2008 at the University Branch of the Seattle Public Library, (5009 Roosevelt Way, N.E. – just north of the University of Washington).

The preferred Alternative in the Draft PEIS considers all public lands and National Forest System lands with potential for geothermal development available for leasing except those that are withdrawn or administratively closed to geothermal leasing. The Draft PEIS also evaluates another alternative based on public input gained during scoping that would limit geothermal leasing for electrical generation to areas near transmission lines.

Written comments on the Draft PEIS may be submitted by any of three methods:
- e-mail – geothermal_EIS@blm.gov
- fax – 1-866-625-0707
- US Mail – Geothermal Programmatic EIS, c/o EMPSi, 182 Howard Street, Suite 110, San Francisco, California 94105

Tags: News, WA State, Western US by Lawrence Molloy
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Geopowering the West is a January 2006 study issued by the Western Governor’s Association. It is the most comprehensive study on geothermal in the Western U.S. Washington pulls in at 50 MWe at five sites (though most analysis elsewhere is higher, this number has become the norm for the state). The report, presented here in full Geothermal-full.pdf characterizes the basis for California (2,500 MW), Nevada (1,500), Idaho (860 ) and Oregon (380). The next round of states that need analysis are Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Texas, and Wyoming. The conclusions of the Task Force include:

The western states share a capacity of almost 13,000 megawatts (MW) of geothermal energy that can be developed on specific sites within a reasonable timeframe (e.g., by 2025). Geothermal power plants, ranging from 10 to over 200 MW (depending on the resource), can supply enough electricity to meet the needs of 10,000 to 200,00 homes respectively.Of these, 5,600 MW are considered by the geothermal industry to be viable for commercial development within the next ten years; i.e., by about 2015. (To put this into perspective, the U.S. had 2,828 MW of geothermal power capacity on-line in 2005.) This is a commercially achievable capacity for new generation and does not include the much larger potential of unknown, undiscovered resources.

The 5,600 MW is estimated to be developable at busbar costs in a range of levelized costs of energy (LCOE) of about 5.3 to 7.9 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

Tags: Best of, Western US by Lawrence Molloy
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