| 5/7/2009 10:53:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article | Promise, challenge offered by Colorado geothermal group
By Ron Sering - Special to the Mail
The Colorado Geothermal Working Group offered promise and challenge for an under-used resource when it conducted its seminar Thursday at Salida Steam Plant.
The seminar gathered public and private entities from throughout the state - including a variety of local officials and leaders to learn about issues and prospects for abundant area geothermal resources.
Joani Matranga, western regional representative for the Governor's Energy Office, outlined broad goals for the group.
"We want to identify our geothermal resources for economic development and expand direct use of heat energy," she said.
The group also wants to start the first electricity production in Colorado.
Geothermal energy is roughly divided into three applications: geoexchange, which uses the natural temperature increase beneath the surface of the earth, direct use and electric power generation.
Geoexchange takes advantage of warm subsurface temperature with ground source heat pumps that pipe liquid through the ground and back to the surface to heat buildings in winter.
The same temperature differentials permit cooling in the summer.
"Direct use," John , professor emeritus of civil engineering at the Oregon Institute of Technology, said, "is providing heat, or cooling directly to buildings, greenhouses, aquaculture ponds, and industrial processes."
Colorado has at least 40 types of direct use geothermal applications. Locally, these include several hot spring spas and the Colorado Gator Farm aquaculture operation in the San Luis Valley.
The geothermal working group claims energy savings as high as 80 percent over fossil fuels using the application.
Geothermal electricity production takes advantage of a new generation of technology to produce electricity using hot water cooler than 300 degrees, officials said.
Past application required steam resources, which are fewer than hot water. The water is piped out of a geothermal well and through a reservoir of fluid that boils at a temperature lower than water.
Resulting steam drives turbines to produce electricity. The water is subsequently reinjected to the aquifer.
A cold water source cools the binary fluid for reuse and the cycle begins again.
Although not without potential water resource issues, the process is considered a nonconsumptive use of water resources.
Colorado ranks fourth among western states in the number of potential sites for geothermal power generation according to the 2006 Western Governors Association report.
"Resource identification is still the priority," Matranga said. "We need to understand our resource better."
Despite the potential, expanding use of geothermal energy faces a number of financial, environmental, and legal hurdles, officials said.
"There's a need for capital in this market," Matranga said. "There are lots of funding instruments we are starting to explore."
Money may include grants through the Governor's Energy Office and the Department of Energy. Also under consideration are clean, renewable energy bonds, making it possible for public entities to pay for renewable energy projects.
The U.S. Department of Energy has made two funding opportunity announcements for fiscal 2009 to spur development of enhanced geothermal systems and Colorado will have at least one application for the money, Matranga said.
"I think with this infusion of capital through the state energy program and the Department of Energy, we're going to have a lot more money to do these projects," Matranga said.
Although some western states such as Utah regard geothermal as a mineral resource, Colorado governs it under water law.
Key to permitting geothermal ground water in Colorado is to prove the resource is "nontributary" - it has limited or no connection with surface streams.
Use of nontributary ground water is not considered as injury to water rights of another right holder.
"Legal, financing and environmental impact are all important, and they can all take time," John , keynote speaker from the Oregon Institute of Technology, said. "Each project needs a hero - a champion willing to see it through."
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