Geothermal bubbles up in debate

Monday, June 19, 2000 | 11:25 a.m.

A proposal by Sen. Frank Murkowski to rewrite the nation's energy policy to rely more heavily on nuclear power has reignited the debate over alternative fuels with some long-ignored sources like geothermal power finally starting to attract a little attention.

The Alaskan Republican, a key proponent of a proposed nuclear waste dump at Yucca Mountain, would have the nation reduce its reliance on oil by increasing its use of nuclear energy.

Missing in the bill, which has not cleared the Senate, is any mention of other options, especially geothermal energy -- an alternative pushed by one of the most vocal opponents of Yucca Mountain, Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada.

Geothermal is a mostly untapped source of power. It produces a fraction of the amount churned out by nuclear plants and yet Nevada's 14 geothermal power plants provide 10 percent of Northern Nevada's electricity, according to Patrick Fagan, the state's geothermal commissioner.

The energy fight pits two of the Senate's powerhouses: Murkowski is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and an influential member of the majority party; Reid is the Senate Minority Whip, the man whose job it is to round up votes on crucial matters. He has marshaled opposition to defeat GOP efforts to move nuclear waste to Nevada five times.

While the political fight may be evenly matched, the potential of the sources of energy are not.

Nuclear power now provides almost 20 percent of the nation's electricity from 72 plants across the nation. No new nuclear plants have been built since 1979, when a plant at Three Mile Island, Pa., experienced a near-meltdown; and the problem of disposing of highly radioactive fuel rods has not yet been solved.

But the source of energy is well established and has friends -- Murkowski among them -- in high places. It also has money. In the past three years, the Nuclear Energy Institute, the industry's lobbying arm, has donated more than $400,000 to political parties and candidates, according to FECInfo, a website that tracks political donations.

Geothermal also has a powerful friend in Reid, but it does not have the money to buy political influence beyond the state's delegation.

And, perhaps more importantly, all of the nation's natural resources are in the West.

But geothermal energy is getting some attention.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson announced a $5 million initiative in February called "GeoPowering the West," which he predicted would help produce enough geothermal energy to supply electricity to 40 million people in the West within a decade. The funds will become available to Nevada in July.

Geothermal could supply power for about 10 percent of the West's electricity needs by 2020, the DOE estimates.

And Nevada is the nation's second-richest state in geothermal resources.

With Reid at his side, Richardson called Nevada the state with the greatest potential for developing energy from heat deep within the earth to create clean electricity.

"Today, 6 percent of California's electricity is generated by geothermal power plants," Reid said. "But according to geologists, Nevada has even greater geothermal potential than its neighbor to the west."

Reid criticized Murkowski's energy bill -- which energy experts from oil and gas companies say may not pass this year -- because it lacks any reference to boosting alternative generators such as geothermal, solar or wind sources.

"If there was ever an example of a short-sighted bill, this is it," Reid said. "It favors fossil fuels and nuclear. I think we should be investing in renewable, clean energy sources."

The Alaskan senator sees his legislation as a way for the U.S. to divorce itself from foreign fossil fuels.

By cutting U.S. dependence on foreign oil, Murkowski believes that cleaner energy is possible. "If we are going to lift the standard of living of the 270 million people who live in this country and the many who live below the poverty line, then energy consumption is going to rise," he said. "We must find a way to provide this energy domestically, where it can be produced using American workers, American technology and done under the strictest environmental standards in the world."

Murkowski has consistently said that renewable energy sources cannot supply the growing demands of the United States. "Alternatives have yet to prove cost-competitive," he said.

Yet geothermal sources in Northern Nevada already supply enough electricity for 100,000 homes, Fagan said. In 1999 this electricity had a sales value of more than $100 million.

How much more energy can be produced from natural hot spots isn't known, but scientists think the Dixie Valley in Northern Nevada, which has shown both seismic and volcanic activity, is a promising site for large-scale production of geothermal energy.

When he announced the $5 million initiative, Richardson also noted the DOE has awarded Geomechanics International, one of the largest geothermal companies in the world, a one-year $150,380 grant to test the Dixie Valley's potential.

The technology is simple on its surface.

The Earth serves as a gigantic boiler where geothermal fluids reach high temperatures and pressures, Jon Price, chief seismologist at the University of Nevada, Reno's seismic lab, said.

As the hot water rises, it turns to steam. Geothermal plants capture the steam and deliver it by pipeline to electrical generators, Price said.

That is the process used at the Yankee Caithness geothermal power plant, which sits atop two fault lines south of Reno. It produces about 12.5 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 12,000 homes, said Ted DeLong of the plant's production.

When built in 1988, Yankee Caithness cost $17 million to build.

A second method, called a binary system, taps into the deep water then uses its steam to heat another material to power the generators. The advantage is that corrosive salts and chemicals in the deep water are prevented from corroding the turbines and their pipes.

SG Geo operates two plants nearby on the binary system able to produce power for 38,000 homes, plant manager Bob Filut said.

While it cost $65 million to build SG Geo's larger plant, it returns about $1 million a month from current sales to the utility, Filut said.

Neither process produces air pollution. If there is a cloud, it's steam.

It costs 5 cents a kilowatt hour to produce geothermal electricity, Richard Hoop, the Bureau of Land Management's fluid minerals team leader, said.

That compares with about 3 cents an hour for fossil fuel plants and nuclear power, according to figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Only natural gas and hydropower sources are cheaper, at 2 cents per kilowatt hour.

While geothermal power may be new to the United States, other parts of the world have been harnessing heat from deep within the Earth for centuries.

The Greeks and Romans put deep heat to good use warming their cold marble floors, said UNLV geoscience professor David Weide. The Romans built ceramic pipes filled with heated water that ran under the cold marble tiles.

New Zealand produces all of its power from geothermal resources, Weide said. So does Iceland. Italy also uses geothermal sources for generating electricity.

Some day geothermal electricity produced in Northern Nevada may come to Las Vegas through improved transmission lines, said the BLM's Hoop.

Once the state deregulates electrical production, the potential to use geothermal sources to heat, cool and light homes, hotels and businesses may become competitive enough to market as an alternative, Hoop said.

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