Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Monday, May 31, 2010 | 2 a.m.
Sun Coverage
Sun Archives
- Harry Reid, John Ensign work to reclaim rurals’ geothermal revenue (3-9-10)
- Senate amends bill to restore geothermal money to counties (3-9-10)
- NV Energy plans renewable energy purchase from geothermal plant (2-11-10)
- Financing lag holds up geothermal (10-1-2009)
- Neighbor's open door a boon to Nevada (9-23-2009)
- Nevada geothermal growth: Full steam ahead (4-17-2009)
- Location of geothermal plant in BC gets planners' OK (4-16-2009)
- Councilman urges city to consider geothermic power plants (3-24-2009)
- Steam seen as power's future (9-16-2007)
Southern Nevada Water Authority is on the verge of getting into the geothermal power business.
The water agency on May 11 purchased a lease on 4,473 acres south of Ely from the Bureau of Land Management for about $9,000.
The agency hopes to build a geothermal energy plant there to power pumps for a planned groundwater pipeline that would siphon off up to 170,000 acre-feet of water from springs in Eastern Nevada for use in Las Vegas and the Coyote Springs development.
Moving all that water will take a huge amount of electricity, something the agency doesn’t have.
Owning power plants is nothing new to the Water Authority. It is the biggest electricity user in the area and owns most of its generators.
The Water Authority is partial owner in NV Energy’s Silverhawk natural gas-fired plant at Apex, from which it gets about 400 megawatts of electricity. It also gets a significant amount of electricity from hydropower generators at Hoover Dam, solar installations across the valley and hydroturbines in some of its pipelines. It also has a power purchase agreement with a company that generates electricity from burning used fryer grease.
That electricity goes toward moving water to and from Lake Mead and treating it for consumption or return to the lake.
Twelve percent of the electricity the agency uses comes from renewable sources and it has a goal of matching the state mandated portfolio standard for NV Energy of generating 25 percent of its electricity from renewable resources or energy conservation by 2025, says Scott Krantz, Water Authority energy management director.
A geothermal plant would provide electricity 24 hours a day seven days a week at a predictable cost. But only if the there’s enough heat underground to support a power plant.
The land the Water Authority is leasing hasn’t been thoroughly evaluated for geothermal potential, which is why the lease price was low — just $2 an acre. The Water Authority board has not yet discussed hiring an exploratory drilling contractor or partnering with a geothermal energy company, but it has allocated $10 million for exploratory work and has applied for an Energy Department grant, spokesman J.C. Davis says.
Because of the recession it could be years before any serious drilling takes place.
“This is only in the earliest stages,” board member Steve Sisolak says. “We’re mostly discussing the pipeline and ranching part of this plan at this point.”
Developing a geothermal plant, from exploration to construction, takes about a decade, but the Water Authority has plenty of time. The pipeline project is in the slow lane because of decreasing demand and the slowdown in growth, Sisolak says.
The pipeline also faces other hurdles that could take years to resolve. The authority’s water rights for the project from the state are in jeopardy after a Nevada Supreme Court ruling that found the applications had expired before they were granted. Utah is holding back on signing a water-sharing agreement that would effectively split the water in one of the basins where the authority wants to pump. Environmentalists and ranchers say there isn’t enough water in the eastern basins to support the kind of pumping the Water Authority plans.
The agency, though, is pushing ahead with all preliminary permits and planning documents to begin the project. General Manager Pat Mulroy says the project will only begin if absolutely necessary for the economic survival of the Las Vegas Valley, but that it needs to be ready to act swiftly should the area’s water supply diminish.
It is possible the pipeline will never get built. But the geothermal power plant might be built anyway, Krantz says. In that case, the Water Authority could sell the electricity or negotiate a power exchange deal with NV Energy for more electricity in Southern Nevada.
“That power would be valuable,” Krantz says.
Kind of like having a hybrid Hummer isn't It ?
Very small thinking by the water district. Planning for the future and doing it green.
Building a mega money pipeline from Northern Nevada is about as dumb a thing as could possibly be done.
First there is not enough water for the flow of water from the North to be sustainable and is just another MWD exercise in centralized empire building with no regard to anything else.
Second, if you take the water from Northern Nevada, then people up there cannot develop their own economies.
Third, someone has to pay for all this stupidity and for sure it will be the tax payers, since the MWD is just a small potato farm in the grand scheme of water. Plus, the MWD has a problem of no big projects on the board, then there is no need for a bunch of overpaid administrators.
As Governor, I would NEVER support the rape of the Northern Nevada water and the pipeline by Mrs. Mulroy and her minions.
However, if the MWD wants to get into a more distributed water situation, geothermal, solar and such then we can create jobs and help restore the economy.
Fred Conquest
Democratic Candidate for Governor
www.fredconquest.com
Renewble Energy is just a front for massive water grabs.
Has anybody learned yet that the whole green economy is a massive scam?
How much money did they waste and are wasting with the Obama money to install energy saving green power at the plants, which is a waste, because we'll never get the return. How many years will it take to have it paid for?? What about the wasted at the Spring Preserves? Wheres the money, how much does the Spring Preserves bring in? Nothing. Whats the outgoing money to run that @#$% hole???
Sunlizard...
That's right!!!
Let's suck every last drop of oil from the earth,
dig every last nugget of coal from them thar hills, let's defile the earth with the byproducts of the oil and the coal! Who CARES???
Everything that has the capability to take a buck from a Rich Oil Barron is bad for America, according to the NeoNuts.
"Green" is code for "liberal nonsense", say the NutJobs.
"Climate Change" is code for "AlGoreNeeds$$$", say these kooks.
Cars that get 75 mpg, (or run on alt fuels) homes & businesses that are self-sufficient for their own power needs through alternative energy, less greenhouse gas emissions through regulation and compliance, smarter distribution of goods and services, many things can be done to preserve the Planet Earth for future generations.
You just have to give a damn.
hey sunlizard...
don't you clowns ever get tired of defending the bad guys...
first, health care insurers and their very real death panels...
then, the greedy pigs on wall street...
now, big oil and its destruction of the environment...
good lord man...
how the hell do you clowns sleep at night!!!
Unfortunately, Mrs. Mulroy dressing up the pipeline with renewable energy is truly just putting lipstick on a very unpleasant, very unsustainable pig. And as for "absolutely necessary," SNWA is a partner in the development of 150,000 homes and two dozen golf courses in Coyote Valley, miles from nowhere on the Lincoln-Clark County line. Without the pipeline, there's no development, so I guess that counts as "absolutely necessary."
because of new efficient cars, fuel tax revenues have fallen dramatically, so the govts answer is to tax us on mileage.So now you get 75 mpg and instead of paying a tax on that gallon, you will pay tax on the 75 miles you just drove.
The alternative energy is so expensive, no home owner can afford it, and it won't even be in full force for 10-15 years. History shows us that the global changes we see are exactly where they should be,we are in a cooling trend.If there is global warming and the waters are rising from melting ice bergs, why did Gore buy an 8 million dollar beach house?
the scare tactics of the environmentalists had a huge article in the paper stating an island in hawaii was becoming smaller due to global warming and would be under water in the near future. As scarey as the story was, the local people reaffirmed that normal erosion and sluffage were the cause, not global warming.
Mulroy has (for years)& still is clearly TRESPASSING on other county water & property rights, using Clark County water users' $$$ to do so, targeted to funnel that $$$ into her corporate scams.
How many idiotic scams of waste will she concoct?
Dear Commissioner Sisolak - I hope you do not wander your county authority over county lines, like Mulroy, Larry Brown & the others do.
Please stop the Fraud, Abuse & Waste now.
talk about bizarre places to build a "community"--COYOTE SPRINGS is wwwaaayyy out there. I drove out there---a solid hour driving fast uphill across the desert nothing--i mean nothing for an hour. All the surrounding towns are Mormon communities, this just feels so out of place out there--fish out of water kind of feel. Urban sprawl at it worst! With all the big names that have lined up behind this project makes you wonder how many envelopes have exchanged hands under the table on this one.