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Humans have been using geothermal energy for centuries, ever since discovering naturally occurring hot springs. Now, water heated by the earth's core is being harnessed to heat indoor spaces and, in some places, to generate electricity. One Oregon prison won an Oregon State Energy Efficient Design Award (SEED) for its use of geothermal technology to provide both hot water and heat for its buildings. Some Oregonians are taking advantage of state and federal tax credits by installing geothermal heat pumps in their homes.
According to the state geologist, Oregon could make geothermal energy an even bigger slice of our energy pie by harnessing the heat from potentially active volcanoes.
Do you heat your home or business using geothermal energy? Have you visited hot springs in Oregon? Where do you see the opportunities to expand the use of geothermal technology in the state?
GUESTS:
- Ray Simms: Town manager for Lakeview
- Vicki McConnell: Director of the Department of Geology and Mineral Industries and Oregon state geologist
- Keith Giarrusso: Service manager for Automatic Heat Company
Tagged as: alternative energy · the switch
Photo credit: NicholasPaulJames' photostream/ Flickr /Creative Commons
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Before the Oregon outdoors were as popular as they are today, my family used to camp at Austin Hot Springs along the Clackamas River.
We enjoyed boiling ourselves in the springs adjacent to the river while the rain fell. We would camp there for days and see only two or three other camping groups. Wonderful memories.
Bagby Hot Springs was also fascinating but we only went there once. I remember the funky smelling near-boiling water and was fascinated where it came from. Up to that point I thought hot water came from the heater in the basement.
Dad explained volcanoes and such and took us on tours of the local volcanoes. To this day I think there is something special about living in the company of volcanoes. Maybe it's a reminder that people are part of nature, not bigger than, or in control of it.
When I hike on Mt. Hood today I think of it as being alive -- not just a mound of inanimate stone.
It is my fervent hope that we learn to use geothermal energy without abusing or destroying nature in the process. Put another way, can we build geothermal that is artful and soul nurturing as well as efficient? I admire the work of the stone masons along the Old Columbia River Highway, for example. Beauty and function unified.
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What are the possible long term side effects of increased use of geothermal energy. Could increased cooling of the underlying layers lead to a change in tectonic activity or environmental shifts?
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As a visitor to Iceland where 90%+ power is geothermal I would like to point out that this is a vary long term solution. Iceland happens to be special in that geothermal plants can be built almost anyplace since hot springs are all over the island and steam bubbles up even in country's only major city.
Idealy we should bring people from Iceland, who have major experance building and running Geothermal Plants, to help us choose good spots to set up plants. Most likly we will find that we do not need to destroy natural hotsprings to build our plants just drill holes deep into the ground and fill it with water to use as a heat extange system.
Lots of additional information can be found here:
http://www.energy.rochester.edu/is/reyk/
Paul Brinker - Vancouver Wa - paul.brinker (at) gmail.com
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The whole West Coast is lined for earthquake faults, fissures, and volcanic zones that are prime geothermal prospects for generating energy. Calpine energy in California currently has utility electricity production based on geothermal wells. Geothermal electricity production could be done up and down the west coast.
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Can your experts tell us what pubicly traded stock companies are investing in Geothermal energy?
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Not so sure our geologist would necessarily know about this. Just curious: Are you asking because you want to invest?
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ORMAT, US Geothermal Inc., Nevada Geothermal Inc, Calpine, even MidAmerican, owner of PP&L, owns a geothermal subsidiary. Chevron is huge in Indonesia/Phillipines.
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Is there a geothermal heat extractor designed and/ or in use that uses a double wall-ed pipe that would permit a closed loop system of clean, passified water to go down the exterior pipe chamber and then return to the top of the earth's crust, pass thru an electricity generating turbine and then return down the exterior chamber of the ipe to be re-heated? The temperature of the returned water would be pre-warmed and would reheat more quickly than pooring water down through the earth to recharge faults.
This type of heat extractor would have little if any enviornmental impact and seems like it would function well in many different sizes.
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Are you familar with a Sterling Engine? You can run an engine given only a difference in temperature between one side of the engine and the other. In other words, you do not need water and can run it on just regular air. Read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stirling_engine
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Given Oregon's landuse laws that encourage density, is there enough room on an average lot to install a geothermal heat pump? or would whole communities prosper from installing systems within neighborhoods? Can planners adopt policies to designate geothermal neighborhoods? Damascus is one such community being close to Mt. Hood and possible geothermal vents, but many residents fight re adverse to planning.
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I found this article in the Scientific American to be very interesting. Has Ms. McConnell seen the article?
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=hot-rocks-tapping-an-unde
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I teach and speak regularly on building science, energy conservation, and sustainability. I want to point out that although this is a really neat technology, in residential (single family) applications, if the motivations of the property owner are the environment and carbon reduction, ground source heat pumps are not the place to start. Although these systems have their place in the "green" market and are much more cost effective in large scale applications, conservation is still, and will always be, the most cost effective and environmentally responsible thing to do. The added cost of a ground source heat pump and loop install are avoidable costs. If financial resources were spent on improving the energy efficiency of the building, complicated heating and cooling systems can be all together avoided. When done well, weatherization will substantially reduce the size and cost of the entire heating and cooling system. The "load", or, the number of btu's needed to condition the building, can only be reduced by improving the building enclosure. We like to say, if you reduce the amount of heat you need (insulate and weatherize), you reduce the amount of heat you need (small heating system). Please consider having a show on energy efficiency, it is a far more responsible place to begin spending money.
Dan
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Comments are now closed.
What geothermal resources are available in Oregon?
Is there enough geothermal in Oregon to make it economically feasible?
What is the mechanical efficiency of converting geothermal to electricity or heat?
What environmental and economic concerns impact the development of geothermal energy?
Are any of the alternative energy systems under exploration today driven by a 20, 50, 100, 1000 year plans? I'm looking for more guidance on long-term viability, and also evidence that proposed solutions are well thought out before they are implemented.
For example, it seems backwards to build wind farms then argue about the point that wind-generated electricity is variable and hard to add to the electric grid. It would have been more intelligent to solve the "how do we get wind electricity onto the grid effectively" question before building the farms?
Off topic a bit: how is the "smart electrical grid" progressing?