Geothermal energy development gathers steam

RENO, Nev. — An unusual combination of economic and environmental forces have created a "perfect storm" that could help geothermal shed its back-seat status to its renewable cousins wind and solar energy, experts said at an international conference Monday.

One after another, state and federal regulators, oil company executives, investor-owned utility officials and private developers recited the conditions in play to an overflow crowd of more than 1,000.

The financial meltdown on Wall Street, soaring oil prices, the volatility of the natural gas market, concern about global warming and a new administration assuming the White House are driving increasing demand for the energy produced by harnessing heat from beneath the earth's surface, they said.

"There is not going to be another opportunity like there is now," said Rebecca Wagner, a former manager at a geothermal development company who serves on the state Public Utilities Commission in Nevada, which has the most potential geothermal power in the country.

"This is the perfect storm of events to prove the geothermal industry is going to help address and possibly solve a lot of our energy issues," she said.

Steve Chalk, deputy assistant U.S. energy secretary for renewable energy, said the nation is "at the cusp of an historic movement in renewable energy."

"We're going through a renaissance now with geothermal — a rebirth," he said.

Thomas Fair, renewable energy executive for NV Energy formerly known as Sierra Pacific Resources, said the 40 percent larger turnout compared with last year's conference is "a sign of what is going on in Nevada and across the country."

Nevada has 10 geothermal power plants generating 325 megawatts of power with 73 more megawatts deliverable by 2010. It has a U.S.-leading 45 projects in the works — more than double the 21 in California, the next busiest state. One megawatt equals 1,000 kilowatts, enough to serve about 1,000 U.S. homes.

The Geothermal Energy Association said new projects are under way in Alaska, Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

When developed, the projects will provide up to 3,368 megawatts of new electric power capacity, more than doubling U.S. capacity from 2,936 megawatts in 2006, to nearly 6,304 megawatts, the association said.

More than 2,100 megawatts of known geothermal resources can be easily developed in Nevada — enough to exceed a state requirement that 20 percent of Nevada's total power production be renewable by 2015, said Lisa Shevenell, the director of the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy.