From Deseret News archives:
Full steam ahead on geothermal power generation
Raser Technologies Inc. marked the completion of a 10-megawatt geothermal power plant with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Beaver County facility located in Thermo. It is the first commercial-scale facility to utilize a new technology that allows the plant to generate electricity using geothermal heated water that is at a much lower temperature than was previously possible, said John Fox, general manager of UTC Power Corp.
The Thermo plant will generate enough electricity to power about 7,000 homes, he said.
UTC developed the technology that would work in conjunction with Raser's modular power-plant design, he said. He added that the process used to generate power produces no emissions and can provide uninterrupted baseload power in the same fashion as coal or nuclear plants.
"You take hot water, you expand the refrigerant, and it creates pressure that is released across a turbine," Fox said. "Now kilowatts come out of the other side of the generator."
Fox said the system runs the exact opposite of heating, ventilating and air-conditioning systems in the typical commercial building. He said the "closed-loop system" prohibits liquids and gases generated through the power production process from escaping into the environment. It also allows for the recycled use of those byproducts later on.
He said the site in Thermo is using an underground lake that is about the size of Utah Lake, with water at a temperature of approximately 300 degrees. Electricity is generated by 50 modular PureCycle power generation units, whose capacity can be expanded in the future, Fox said.
The cost of the project was about $50 million, according to Raser investor relations manager Richard Putnam. He said future projects should cost about 10 percent less to construct as development efficiencies are improved.
Craig Higginson, Raser chairman of the board, said the plant took only six months to build, which he believes presents some "real possibilities" for Utah's energy future.
"The fact that it is modular means it is much like a computer network versus a mainframe computer," he said. "We can continue to just add these units and network the power together to develop distributable power."
Higginson estimated that the Thermo site may contain enough geothermal resources to power a third of the homes in Utah with zero emissions when fully developed. He added that his company is in talks with several utilities, including Rocky Mountain Power, about possible geothermal plant development.
