Recently in Geothermal Energy Category

Oct 29, 2009 -- U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced up to $338 million in Recovery Act funding for the exploration and development of new geothermal fields and research into advanced geothermal technologies.

These geothermal R&D grants will support 123 projects in 39 states, with recipients including private industry, academic institutions, tribal entities, local governments, and DOE's National Laboratories. The grants will be matched more than one-for-one with an additional $353 million in private and non-Federal cost-share funds.

Domestic Geothermal Renewable Energy Source

"The United States is blessed with vast geothermal energy resources, which hold enormous potential to heat our homes and power our economy," said Secretary Chu. "These investments in America's technological innovation will allow us to capture more of this clean, carbon free energy at a lower cost than ever before. We will create thousands of jobs, boost our economy and help to jumpstart the geothermal industry across the United States."

These grants are directed towards identifying and developing new geothermal fields and reducing the upfront risk associated with geothermal development through innovative exploration and drilling projects and data development and collection. In addition, the grants will support the deployment and creative financing approaches for ground source heat pump demonstration projects across the country.

Green Jobs in Commercial Scale Geothermal

Collectively, these projects will represent a dramatic expansion of the U.S. geothermal industry and will create or save thousands of jobs in drilling, exploration, construction, and operation of geothermal power facilities and manufacturing of ground source heat pump equipment.

The projects selected for negotiation of awards fall in six categories:

• Innovative Exploration and Drilling Projects (up to $98.1 million): Twenty-four projects have been selected focusing on the development of new geothermal fields using innovative sensing, exploration, and well-drilling technologies.

• Coproduced, Geopressured, and Low Temperature Projects (up to $20.7 million): Eleven projects have been selected for the development of new low-temperature geothermal fields, a vast but currently untapped set of geothermal resources. This includes geothermal heat found in the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells around the U.S., where up to ten barrels of hot water are produced for every barrel of oil.

• Enhanced Geothermal Systems Demonstrations (up to $51.4 million): Three projects have been selected for the exploration, drilling and development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to validate power production from deep hot rock resources using innovative technologies and approaches.

• Enhanced Geothermal Systems Components Research and Development / Analysis (up to $81.5 million): Forty-five projects have been selected to focus on research and development of new technologies to find and drill into deep hot rock formations, stimulate enhanced geothermal reservoirs, and convert the heat to power.

• Geothermal Data Development, Collection and Maintenance (up to $24.6 million): Three projects have been selected for the population of a comprehensive nationwide geothermal resource database to help identify and assess new fields.

• Ground Source Heat Pump Demonstrations (up to $61.9 million): Thirty-seven projects have been selected to demonstrate the deployment of ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling of a variety of buildings for a variety of customer types, including academic institutions, local governments and commercial buildings.

  SOURCE: US Department of Energy

Oct 29, 2009 -- U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Steven Chu has announced up to $338 million in Recovery Act funding for the exploration and development of new geothermal fields and research into advanced geothermal technologies.

These geothermal R&D grants will support 123 projects in 39 states, with recipients including private industry, academic institutions, tribal entities, local governments, and DOE's National Laboratories. The grants will be matched more than one-for-one with an additional $353 million in private and non-Federal cost-share funds.

Domestic Geothermal Renewable Energy Source

"The United States is blessed with vast geothermal energy resources, which hold enormous potential to heat our homes and power our economy," said Secretary Chu. "These investments in America's technological innovation will allow us to capture more of this clean, carbon free energy at a lower cost than ever before. We will create thousands of jobs, boost our economy and help to jumpstart the geothermal industry across the United States."

These grants are directed towards identifying and developing new geothermal fields and reducing the upfront risk associated with geothermal development through innovative exploration and drilling projects and data development and collection. In addition, the grants will support the deployment and creative financing approaches for ground source heat pump demonstration projects across the country.

Green Jobs in Commercial Scale Geothermal

Collectively, these projects will represent a dramatic expansion of the U.S. geothermal industry and will create or save thousands of jobs in drilling, exploration, construction, and operation of geothermal power facilities and manufacturing of ground source heat pump equipment.

The projects selected for negotiation of awards fall in six categories:

• Innovative Exploration and Drilling Projects (up to $98.1 million): Twenty-four projects have been selected focusing on the development of new geothermal fields using innovative sensing, exploration, and well-drilling technologies.

• Coproduced, Geopressured, and Low Temperature Projects (up to $20.7 million): Eleven projects have been selected for the development of new low-temperature geothermal fields, a vast but currently untapped set of geothermal resources. This includes geothermal heat found in the hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells around the U.S., where up to ten barrels of hot water are produced for every barrel of oil.

• Enhanced Geothermal Systems Demonstrations (up to $51.4 million): Three projects have been selected for the exploration, drilling and development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) to validate power production from deep hot rock resources using innovative technologies and approaches.

• Enhanced Geothermal Systems Components Research and Development / Analysis (up to $81.5 million): Forty-five projects have been selected to focus on research and development of new technologies to find and drill into deep hot rock formations, stimulate enhanced geothermal reservoirs, and convert the heat to power.

• Geothermal Data Development, Collection and Maintenance (up to $24.6 million): Three projects have been selected for the population of a comprehensive nationwide geothermal resource database to help identify and assess new fields.

• Ground Source Heat Pump Demonstrations (up to $61.9 million): Thirty-seven projects have been selected to demonstrate the deployment of ground source heat pumps for heating and cooling of a variety of buildings for a variety of customer types, including academic institutions, local governments and commercial buildings.

  SOURCE: US Department of Energy

The Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct05) authorizes the U.S. Department of Energy to issue loan guarantees to eligible projects that "avoid, reduce, or sequester air pollutants or anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases" and "employ new or significantly improved technologies as compared to technologies in service in the United States at the time the guarantee is issued".

Early Commercial Use

Title XVII of EPAct05 provides the basis of DOE's program. This title provides broad authority for DOE to guarantee loans that support early commercial use of advanced technologies, if "there is reasonable prospect of repayment of the principal and interest on the obligation by the borrower." Loan guarantees will be another tool that DOE will use to promote commercial use of innovative technologies. This tool is targeted at early commercial use only, not energy research, development, and demonstration programs.

DOE believes that accelerated commercial use of new or improved technologies will help to sustain economic growth, yield environmental benefits, and produce a more stable and secure energy supply.

The US Department of Energy is expected to open the window in 2009 to apply for federal loan guarantees on loans to wind, solar, geothermal, biomass and other renewable energy projects that use commercially proven technologies.

In the first round, the Department evaluated loan guarantee pre-applications for projects that employed technologies in the following areas:

1. Biomass
2. Hydrogen
3. Solar
4. Wind and Hydropower
5. Advanced Fossil Energy Coal
6. Carbon Sequestration practices and technologies
7. Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability
8. Alternative Fuel Vehicles
9. Industry Energy Efficiency Projects
10. Pollution Control Equipment

Financial Institution Partnership Program (FIPP)

This new program--called the "Financial Institution Partnership Program" or "FIPP" because of the key role played by private lenders-- differs substantially from the prior program that guarantees repayment of loans to projects that use innovative technologies. It will use radically different processes than those used so far to apply, evaluate, rank and award guarantees for projects.

The department will release a set of rules for the loan guarantee program at the same time it opens the window--and anyone who wants to apply is expected to have negotiated his or her loan first with a bank or insurance company and then the lender will apply to DOE for a guarantee.

Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20585
www.lgprogram.energy.gov

Sept 03, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/

Enhanced Oil Resources Inc. announced a joint venture agreement with GreenFire Energy  to evaluate the potential for CO(2)-based geothermal power production (CO(2)G(TM)) from the St Johns Dome area, located in Apache County, Arizona and Catron County, New Mexico.

The agreement calls for the construction of a demonstration plant that will utilize supercritical carbon dioxide from the dome to drive a demonstration geothermal power facility to be located nearby. The demonstration project is expected to commence in 2010 with the drilling of up to four deep wells to access high heat crystalline rock underlying the dome.

The construction of the demonstration plant will commence during 2011 and will initially be sized for 2 megawatts and will require up to 5 million cubic feet per day of CO(2) at a purity of 95% for a period of at least 2 years. If the demonstration project is successful, modular commercial-scale plants, each with a generating capacity of approximately 50 megawatts may be built nearby. At maximum potential build-out using natural CO(2) from the St. Johns Dome, the joint venture may have a generating capacity of 800 megawatts and may require up to 500 million cubic feet of CO(2) per day for up to 25 years.

Sequester Carbon from Coal Fired Power Plants in St. Johns Dome

The region in which the St. Johns Dome is located contains six major coal-fired power plants that collectively emit about 90 million tons of CO(2) per year.

If a carbon tax is enacted, then the most economic way for these power plants to sequester their carbon may be through CO(2)-based geothermal energy production at the dome.

As the CO(2) is cycled through the rock, a portion of it is sequestered into the surrounding geologic materials. The power generated by the geothermal plant can then drive the carbon capture technology, which is energy intensive, at the coal-fired power plants.

Potentially, over 3,000 megawatts may be generated at the dome using anthropogenic CO(2).

The St. Johns Dome area is considered to be in an optimal location at which to develop CO(2)-based geothermal energy. This is due to its combination of a large volume of low cost natural CO(2), the likely presence of a thermal reservoir underlying the region and a local connection into the power grid. As power plants around the world begin implementing carbon capture and sequestration, many additional sites for CO(2)-based geothermal energy projects may become available.

The joint venture intends to apply for funding from the Department of Energy through the federal stimulus plan. In 2009, the DOE allocated $350MM for geothermal energy projects. It has, however, allocated more than $3B for carbon capture and sequestration projects. Similar federal funding opportunities will likely exist in 2010 and beyond, with considerably more in the proposed climate bill. The joint venture considers the St Johns project to be eligible for funding through carbon capture and sequestration programs.

The agreement between EOR Inc and GreenFire provides each party an option to participate for a 50% interest in the demonstration plant and any future commercial plant. GreenFire will act as the Operator of the geothermal project and EOR will act as Operator of the St. Johns field development.

Independent financial consultant Jim Hansen runs every investment through the "peak oil test". In this presentation from the ASPO-USA 2008 conference, he explores traditional energy investments; opportunities in renewables, rail, and electrifying the transportation system; areas to avoid like airlines and trucking; and what to watch, like electric cars and the unwinding of globalization.

In this interview, ecologist and professor Charlie Hall looks at energy return on energy invested. Whether it's a cheetah chasing antelope, or humans making ethanol -- the energy we get back has to exceed the energy we put in, or the story is over. He compares oil's energy return in the 1930's (1 calorie invested returned 100 calories of energy) with the current situation (1:12) and still declining.

Presenters respond to the final question in the Q&A session at the close of ASPO-USA's 2008 conference: how do we better harness the intellect, energy and commitment at this conference, and what one thing would you have people ask an elected official to do about peak oil?
 
Peak Moment Conversation #136 "Energy Investment - Energy Return" with financial consultant Jim Hansen, and ecologist Charlie Hall, plus final Q&A from the ASPO-USA 2008 conference in September, is now online at www.peakmoment.tv (video), and www.globalpublicmedia.com (audio and video).