Apr 18 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Patty Henetz The Salt Lake Tribune

Geothermal energy is clean, runs 24 hours a day and could be providing millions of people with electricity in Utah and the West.

So what's the holdup?

Utah academics, officials and business representatives will make that question the center of a two-day meeting and field trip next week for utilities, municipalities, students, homeowners and anyone interested in the geothermal potential bubbling up from Utah's hot pots.

Geologists, utilities and entrepreneurs already believe Utah possesses some of the best geothermal reservoirs in the nation, resources that could generate 850 megawatts, enough to meet the needs of 2.6 million people. And as the price of coal, natural gas and oil continues to climb, geothermal is attracting more interest.

Cost, though, still is an issue, because "it takes time and exploration dollars" to decide where best to drill, said Dianne Nielson, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s energy policy adviser.

Big projects can cost $1 million to $2 million to develop and take three to five years to start operations, said Jason Berry, who runs the state Energy Program through the Utah Geological Survey. Further, tax credits and other incentives have been unreliable over the long term, he said.

But the financial and environmental future for conventional coal-fired energy is murky, too. That's why PacifiCorp is seeking to develop more geothermal energy than the 34 megawatts it generates at its Blundell plant in the Roosevelt hot springs area near Milford, said spokesman Jeff Hymas.

The Blundell generator was built in the mid-1980s and was the first geothermal plant constructed in the nation outside California, Hymas said. Even though the technology is carbon-free and California is willing to pay premium prices for the electricity, the cost-benefit remains shaky, he said.

"There's an inherent risk in developing geothermal resources," Hymas said. "Part of that is the large up-front capital cost."

The simplest way to use geothermal energy is to use steam for radiant heat. Both the Utah State Prison at Point of the Mountain and Milgro Nurseries in Newcastle draw heat from geothermal fields.

Even less-technical geothermal heat pumps employ piping in horizontal or vertical trenches to pre-cool or preheat the air going into air conditioners and furnaces, increasing appliance efficiency by 70 percent to 90 percent.

Large geothermal power plants pull hot water and steam from the ground, use the steam to drive turbines to create electricity, then return water to the ground. Plants also can use relatively low-heat "binary" geothermal technology by passing the hot water through a heat exchanger to boil a fluid such as isobutane at lower temperatures than water to create steam.

Raser Technologies, a Provo company, is just starting on its third small project using the binary system in a kind of prefab plant to profit on Utah's largely untapped geothermal resources, 10 megawatts at a time.

Although Raser wouldn't mind getting tax credits and incentives, "we think these projects are profitable in themselves," said company spokesman Richard Putnam.

The company expects its first plant to start generating electricity in the Escalante Desert by the end of this year, said Putnam. The three plants would generate enough power for about 90,000 people.

GEOTHERMAL WORKSHOP:

--When: Tuesday and Wednesday.

--Where: Cedar Breaks Room of the Sharwan Smith Student Center at Southern Utah University, Cedar City.

--What: Representatives of geothermal businesses, including Ormat Technologies, Raser Technologies, ENEL and PacifiCorp, will offer overviews and updates on geothermal development in southwestern Utah.

--Information: And itinerary at http://geology.utah.gov/whatsnew/ news/new0408.htm.