State looking for geothermal hot spots

Matt Hildner

Daily Press Writer

MONTROSE — The state is looking under every rock in the hopes of finding alternative energy and pockets of the earth’s heat beneath the San Juan Mountains may hold some promise.

The Governor’s Office of Energy Management and Conservation and the Colorado Geological Survey have teamed to author a preliminary look at possible geothermal energy sources around the state that includes areas near Ouray and Rico.

While Coloradoans have utilized some of the more easily tapped sources for hot springs or, as in Mosca, even an alligator farm, the state lags behind states such as California and Nevada in harnessing the earth’s heat to generate electricity.

Supporters of the resource believe it holds the potential to provide consistent baseloads of electricity, much like coal-fired power plants. Unlike coal, however, the use of geothermal would emit very low or no greenhouse gases.

That potential has spurred the state to undertake preliminary investigations on a scale not seen since the energy crunch of the 1970s.

For the past year the state has been collecting geologic data from previous attempts by private industry to find geothermal hot spots. Where possible they’ve also looked at old mining records and the results of oil and gas exploration.

One test hole near Ouray suggests that the earth’s temperature rises nearly 190 degrees Fahrenheit per kilometer of depth. A data point near Rico holds the potential for a slightly hotter gradient.

While the technology required at some plants around the country require high-temperature waters of at least 347 degrees, recent technology would allow plants to use water with temperatures as low as 194 degrees, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Binary cycle plants take the lower temperature water to heat a hydrocarbon working fluid with a lower boiling point than water that could then power a turbine.

“Those are the types of plants that would probably be most amenable to Colorado’s geothermal resources,” said Matt Sares, who helped conduct the state study for the Colorado Geological Survey.

More work would have to be done, however, to define the extent of the resource in those areas.

“In order for it to be defined at this point in time, it would have to be commercial entities that would have to do it,” he said.

Toward that end the state, with an assist from the Delta-Montrose Electric Association, has formed a working group to drum up interest from the private sector.

The group plans to author a strategic plan in June that identifies other obstacles that need to be overcome for power production.

“What industry folks have told me is they would like to see some financial risk sharing on the part of the government,” said Angela Crooks, program manager for the Office of Energy Management and Conservation.

Any plans of utilizing geothermal energy for power plants would also have to address the development of transmission lines.

“The geothermal resource is where it is,” Sares said. “It is an issue in terms of developing the resource.”

Although the DOE has funded the working group, federal assistance in developing geothermal energy could lag behind the research it’s sponsored for other forms of renewable energy such as wind and solar power.

When the Bush administration issued its budget proposal for 2007 a year ago, it did not include funding for geothermal research. The Office of Management and Budget declared geothermal a “mature” energy source that could be developed sufficiently by private enterprise.

For now, the state is focused on drumming up private interest. After the strategic report comes out in June, DMEA is under contract by the state to facilitate a meeting that would bring interested industry and investors together.

Tom Polikalas, a spokesman for DMEA, believes the initial curiosity is there.

“The interest is there, it’s really coordinating it and bringing all the interested parties together at one time and one place,” he said. “You need to do that before any project can go forward.”

Contact Matt Hildner via e-mail at matth@montrosepress.com