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WASHINGTON, DC, US, May 10, 2006 (Refocus
Weekly)
Geothermal could supply 30,000 MW of U.S.
electricity by 2025, but proposals to close federal research
programs would cut this figure in half, warns the industry trade
association.
Currently, geothermal produces 2,800 MW in four states
(California, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii) and the Geothermal Energy
Association predicts that utility-scale projects will expand into
Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oregon,
Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Production by 2025 could be 30,725
MW, it told the Senate subcommittee on energy appropriations, with
substantial benefits that would include 240,976 GWh of power
generation each year, with more reliability to the grid.
That level of generation would be equivalent to all the electricity
generated in California, Nevada and Idaho combined, and would
provide millions of consumers with “reliable, cost-effective power
at stable prices” and displace one-third of the natural gas
currently used to generate power. With continued federal and state
support, GEA said geothermal could expand beyond 5% of California’s
electricity to providing 6% of the entire country’s power demand by
2025.
The development of 30,000 MW of geothermal in the next 20 years
would represent an investment of US$70 billion and create 130,000
new full-time jobs and 500,000 person-years of construction and
manufacturing employment. “Yet, at this level of geothermal
production, we would only be utilizing a small fraction of the
ultimate geothermal potential,” it testified.
Proposals to close federal research programs would cut the 30,000 MW
figure because half of the capacity is “highly dependent upon
continued research and technological development supported through
DOE's research program.” The loss of these programs “would be a
major setback to both the pace and extent to which we can expand our
use of this important renewable energy resource,” explained Karl
Gawell of GEA.
“Continued geothermal research by the Department of Energy is
urgently needed and clearly justified,” he said. “The National
Research Council’s review of the DOE renewable energy programs found
that the geothermal research program was undervalued” and the
geothermal resource has significant potential to contribute to
energy needs in the U.S.
“The federal government has made a significant investment in
developing a laboratory and university research community that is
leading the world in developing the technologies needed to utilize
this vast resource,” he added. “This is not the time to abandon this
effort.”
“The budget’s short-sighted proposal to close out the geothermal
research program would significantly set-back progress towards
national energy goals and jeopardize new technology development for
decades,” and he urged the subcommittee to appropriate $32.5 million
for programs.
Of that amount, $8.5 million would support a geothermal consortium (IWGC)
created under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 to support national
energy security through research and development of geothermal
resources. Another $2 million would support the University of
Nevada's centre for geothermal energy, $4 million for Sandia
National Laboratories to develop advanced technologies for drilling
research to reduce the cost and risk of exploration and new
projects, $4 million for cost-shared drilling, $4 million for
information, outreach, and project development efforts, and $10
million for other activities administered by the DOE.
“While only a small fraction of the geothermal resource base is
utilized today, it already provides significant energy for our
nation” and GEA says the 16 billion kWh of electricity that the
technology generates every year is more than wind and solar
combined. The industry provides 11,500 full-time jobs and more in
direct use applications, and current geothermal generation in the
U.S. is equivalent to burning 25 million barrels of oil or 6 million
short tons of coal each year.
Geothermal electricity displaces the emission of 16 Mt of carbon,
78,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 32,000 tons of nitrogen oxides, and
17,000 tons of particulate matter compared with electricity from a
modern coal-fired plant, the group claims.
“Research shows that for every million dollars invested in
geothermal energy, $2.5 million will return to the U.S. economy,”
and adding the 30,000 MW of capacity by 2025 would offset 266 Mt of
carbon emissions each year, equivalent to the emissions from 41
million cars, or more than the combined total CO2 emissions from
Austria, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Lithuania, New Zealand, Sweden
and Switzerland.
“With a highly selective reading of EPAct, the Office of Management
& Budget appears to justify its proposal to terminate the DOE
geothermal research program on the fact that Congress included
important provisions in this legislation to stimulate new geothermal
development,” Gawell concluded. “OMB ignores the devastating impact
that terminating the geothermal program would have on the potential
contribution of this industry to national energy needs and its
international competitiveness.”
“Their justifications do not appear to be based upon metrics that
are applied consistently across technologies, nor do they appear to
be based upon documented and objective analysis,” he added. “Quite
simply, it’s difficult to argue with their analysis, when there
doesn’t appear to be any. Both the process and results of their
decision making are a mystery.”
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