Maloney letter questions Imperial Irrigation District, Catalyst Hannon Armstrong Renewables water usage
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 22, 2010 at 6:19 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
“Imperial Irrigation District board members received a letter from the law offices of Patrick Maloney questioning the legality of the water sale to the Catalyst Hannon Armstrong Renewables geothermal plant.
The law offices of Patrick Maloney traditionally represent the Imperial Group. Attorney Thomas Virsik wrote the letter. He was not at the office Wednesday, and Maloney declined to comment, citing the firm’s policy.
The letter stated that the 800 acre-feet of water IID will sell to CHAR to develop the Hudson Ranch 1 geothermal plant amounts to a water transfer. Virsik wrote that the clients were supportive of geothermal development but questioned the legality of the water sale.
“The last-minute agenda for tomorrow reflects that IID is considering another water transfer, albeit one that is much smaller than the QSA recently found invalid,” the letter stated. “The contemplated transfer is 800 acre-feet of water away from agricultural use to dedicated geothermal use.” … “
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Imperial Irrigation District votes 5-0 for geothermal water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 21, 2010 at 6:19 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
“The CHAR geothermal plant project received approval from the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors to purchase 800 acre-feet of water annually, at Wednesday’s special meeting. The Board of Directors voted unanimously to approve the purchase.
CHAR is comprised of the firms Catalyst Renewables and Hannon Armstrong.
CHAR, which will develop the Hudson Ranch 1 geothermal plant, is the first recipient of IID’s interim water supply policy. CHAR is now authorized to purchase up to 800 acre-feet of water annually from IID for 30 years. The interim water supply policy provides 25,000 acre-feet of water for purchase annually for nonagricultural uses. … “
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Imperial Irrigation District votes on geothermal water today
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 20, 2010 at 5:55 am
From the Imperial Valley Press:
“The Hudson Ranch 1 geothermal plant developer may get the green light to purchase water from the Imperial Irrigation District during a special board meeting today.
“It’s been four years of development, and we’re right on the verge of financial closing for construction of Hudson Ranch 1, so we’re very excited,” said Dave Watson, who represented CHAR — the plant’s developer, comprised of the firms Catalyst Renewables and Hannon Armstrong — at Tuesday’s IID meeting.
If the IID board approves CHAR’s request to purchase 800 acre-feet of water annually, the firm could begin finalizing finances for construction. Groundbreaking would happen in February or March, and construction would last about two years.
The proposed $350 million, 49-megawatt plant would use up to 800 acre-feet of water annually from the IID’s interim water supply policy. The IID’s IWSP provides 25,000 acre-feet of water annually for nonagricultural projects and will ultimately lead to the integrated water resources management plan. … “
Photo of a geothermal plant in the Imperial Valley by Aquafornia.
Peter Gleick: “Drought impacts on unemployment are grossly overstated”
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 13, 2009 at 7:52 amFrom Peter Gleick at the City Brights blog:
” “Drought impacts on unemployment are grossly overstated.” Thus concludes a new comprehensive assessment of the impacts of the drought on Central Valley unemployment. We’ve heard a lot of rhetoric on this issue in the past few months, mostly from a small group of self-interested farmers who would like to see the deliveries of water to their fields increased at the expense of remaining storage in reservoirs and water recently returned to natural ecosystems.
Water Number: 0.3%. In fact, this new independent assessment, from Professor Jeffrey Michael of the University of the Pacific Eberhardt School of Business Forecasting Center (which took no outside funding to do the report), concludes that of the 5.6% increase in unemployment in the San Joaquin Valley counties over the past year, only 0.3% of it comes from water shortages. More than 2.5% of the rise in unemployment comes from the drastic drop in construction employment and the rest from other economic woes caused by the financial policies of the previous administration.
Most media stories have reported that 30,000 to 90,000 jobs were lost due to water shortages. The University of the Pacific report finds that to be a gross overestimate, and concludes that job losses from water shortages were around 6,000 – certainly bad, but far, far lower than losses due to other factors. The report uses two different methods to check these results, using data from the agricultural industry. Both methods reach similar conclusions. …”
Read more from Peter Gleick at the City Brights blog by clicking here.
“Hot” new drill prototype is the “holy grail” of the geothermal world
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 20, 2009 at 7:01 amFrom CleanTechnica.com:
There is enough energy stored beneath the earth’s surface to power all of our energy demands thousands of times over. The problem is, it’s thousands of feet beneath us. Out of sight. Out of mind. But what if we could get to it? What if we could harvest that power?
That’s the task at hand for Jared Potter. Jared Potter, CEO of Potter Drilling, is developing technology that his father, Robert Potter, initiated over 30 years ago while working at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Robert Potter worked on developing Hot Dry Rock (HDR) heat mining, which, simply put, is a method of harvesting geothermal energy by pumping water into hot, crystalline rock via an injection well. The water is superheated as it flows through open joints in the hot rock reservoir, and is returned through production wells. At the surface, the useful heat is extracted by conventional processes, and the same water is recirculated to mine more heat.
Jared Potter is taking that process to the next level. Using new drilling technologies, Potter is working toward solving the increasing global demand for energy while addressing climate-change issues for a price that is competitive with coal. The solution is geothermal.
Read more from CleanTechnica by clicking here.
Why environmental groups would oppose a renewable energy project
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 6, 2009 at 6:22 am
From Bishop’s Inyo Register:
The Coso Geothermal Plant, the largest producer of geothermal energy on the planet, and reportedly the hottest geothermal reservoir in the world, is moving forward with its project to pump water, arguably the most precious resource in the Eastern Sierra and the state, to continue generating power in a financially viable way.
But a strange dichotomy is happening with Coso’s renewable energy venture that has environmental advocates staunchly opposed to the project, which would not produce the amount of greenhouse gases that a normal coal or natural gas powered plant would. At issue is the fact that Coso needs to pump water from an aquifer and in the process possibly cause irreversible damage to that area, specifically the Little Lake riparian area.
It is no secret that the Owens Valley has a long and turbulent history concerning water and its exportation from the area, usually for the monetary profits of a few. So this new water war is emerging as the country moves toward weening itself off of imported fossil fuels.
Environmental advocates, at the national and local level, support renewables, but only if the project is truly renewable. Carl Zichella, director of the Sierra Club’s Western Renewable Programs, said that the club is “generally, a big supporter of renewable energy, as they are a very important piece of the future.” He continued by praising geothermal power for its continuous “non-intermittent” energy source that runs 24 hours a day, unlike other renewables that depend on sunlight or wind.
But, the Sierra Club’s official stance on renewable energy projects is to approach them “on a case by case basis,” Zichella said Tuesday. “We need them (geothermal power plants) desperately, but we need to be careful,” Zichella explained. “Geothermal power is not really possible or appropriate everywhere.”
Read more from the Inyo Register by clicking here.
Coso geothermal plant given green light to pump water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 17, 2009 at 7:48 amFrom the Inyo Register:
After a marathon, nine-and-a-half-hour hearing Wednesday, the Inyo County Planning Commission voted unanimously to grant the Coso Operating Company permission to pump water and pipe it nine miles for use at its geothermal power plant to replenish a depleting geothermal reservoir.
There were some changes to the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) after the commission listened to extensive testimony and public comments, but these changes were minor.Among the alterations was to lower the first year of pumping to 3,000 acre-feet per year with mitigation and monitoring, from the originally requested 4,800 acre-feet annually. If, after the initial year, the models show that there are no significant impacts, Coso will be able to increase the pumping up to the 4,800 acre-feet limit.
So, the hydrology of the area will be stressed by pumping, but at a lower rate.
To understand what is happening to the Rose Valley aquifer hundreds of feet below the surface, a model is crafted based on predictions. But, according to the scientists and consultants present at the meeting, the only way to truly understand what happens below the surface is to pump the water and monitor the aquifer under that pumping stress. The monitoring data can then be used to re-shape and re-calibrate the model so a more accurate picture of what the aquifer looks like can be ascertained.
“We’re glad it was approved,” said Joe Greco, senior vice-president of Terra-Gen, one of Coso’s parent companies, immediately following the commission’s decision. “And after the pumping and monitoring proves what’s going on, we’ll be able to plan accordingly.”
Extensive coverage from the Inyo Register by clicking here.
Coso investing $12 million-plus on merits of pump proposal to draw groundwater from Little Lake for geothermal plant
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on March 10, 2009 at 5:11 am
From the Inyo Register:
There is a company that owns land in Inyo County and wants to pump water from that land for profit, for itself and ultimately the county. The company is not going to bottle the water, or use it for lawns or fountains, or pump the water without limitations. The water is going to be used for renewable energy production, which helps reduce this country’s dependency on fossil fuels, foreign and domestic.
Coso Operating Company (COC), operators of the Coso Geothermal Plant, has requested a permit from the county to pump that water from its fallowed Hay Ranch property to replenish a depleting geothermal reservoir. COC is reporting that the depletion equals a 3.6 percent reduction in power generation, the equivalent of enough energy to power 10,000 homes.
The geothermal reservoir is the hot fluid, thousands of feet below the surface, that travels up wells at the power plant, then flashes into steam at the surface. The steam then pushes and drives turbines that, in turn, drives the electrical power generators. Through time, the reservoir becomes depleted due to evaporation and must be augmented to maintain reservoir pressure.
COC is asking for a 30-year Conditional Use Permit, or CUP, to pump the water, build necessary infrastructure and pipe the water nine miles from the ranch to the plant. If approved by the Planning Commission, the CUP will include mitigation and monitoring measures, enforceable by law, to ensure that the amount of water pumped will not “unreasonably affect the environment or overall economy of Inyo County.”
The plan involves drilling 20 wells between Haiwee Reservoir and Little Lake, and strict monitoring guidelines would require the Coso Operating Company to stop operations if trigger points are reached. Of course, not everyone is satisfied:
However, opposition to the project varies from allegations of an inadequate environmental review of the project, to assumptions that COC has so much invested in the plant already, it will proceed with or without the Hay Ranch water.
Rex Allen, chairman of the County Water Commission, opposes the project on these grounds. Allen explained his position in a letter he wrote to the county Planning Commission as a private citizen.
Allen’s argument is based on bond rating reports that he interprets as COC telling the bond raters, “We think we will get the Hay Ranch water and it will probably help cut our costs, but we will do just fine anyhow.”Allen wrote that COC will make the geothermal plant work with or without the Hay Ranch water and that, “Inyo County is not going to lose significant tax monies no matter what we do, and if we play our cards right we may yet improve the tax take while saving our precious groundwater and protecting a very pretty desert valley.”
Read more on this story from the Inyo Register by clicking here.
“Modern Marvels”: Steam plant star of show
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 7, 2009 at 5:50 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
Two cameramen and a producer wandered under and around the roaring and hissing pipes of the CalEnergy geothermal plant near here. They were capturing footage for the TV show “Modern Marvels” — specifically an episode about steam — and spent the morning interviewing CalEnergy staff about how their plant uses hot water and steam stored underground to produce energy.
“We want to see steam at all times,” Richard Jones, the episode’s producer said as he walked around with the cameramen.
Later the crew will fly to New York and meet up with Jay Leno, who owns and drives a series of steam-powered cars.
But on Friday, CalEnergy was center stage. “We liked the idea that geothermal steam is clean energy,” Jones said, explaining what drew them out to the Salton Sea area, and to CalEnergy specifically. “There’s the largest steam well in the world right here,” Jones said.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Utilities putting new energy into geothermal sources
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 3, 2008 at 6:47 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
Not far from the blinking casinos of this gambler’s paradise lies what could be called the Biggest Little Power Plant in the World.
Tucked into a few dusty acres across from a shopping mall, it uses steam heat from deep within the Earth’s crust to generate electricity. Known as geothermal, the energy is clean, reliable and so abundant that this facility produces more than enough electricity to power every home in Reno, population 221,000.
“There’s no smoke. Very little noise,” said Paul Thomsen, director of policy and business management for Ormat Technologies Inc., which owns the operation. “People don’t even know it’s here.”
Geothermal energy may be the most prolific renewable fuel source that most people have never heard of. Although the supply is virtually limitless, the massive upfront costs required to extract it have long rendered geothermal a novelty. But that’s changing fast as this old-line industry buzzes with activity after decades of stagnation.
More than 80% of the country’s geothermal power lies in California, with 22 geothermal plants operating in the Geysers, 75 miles north of San Francisco, and the Salton Sea with 10 plants; more are planned. The potential of geothermal energy is huge:
Greenhouse gas emissions are minimal in geothermal operations, and the size of the fuel supply defies imagination. There is 50,000 times more heat energy contained in the first six miles of the Earth’s crust than in all the planet’s oil and natural gas resources, according to the environmental organization Earth Policy Institute.
The challenge is extracting it. Geothermal energy production requires three things: heat from the Earth’s core, fractured rock to make it easy to get to and water to transport the heat to the surface.
Traditionally, developers have sought out pockets of hot water and steam hidden underground. Prime areas lie along continental plate boundaries, which is why California is such a hotbed.
Still, these reservoirs can be tricky to pinpoint. They’re also expensive to reach. A geothermal well can cost $5 million or more. The result: The U.S. currently derives less than 0.5% of its electricity from geothermal.
Some say the key to harnessing this energy source on a massive scale lies with a technology known as enhanced geothermal systems, or EGS for short. The idea is to engineer the necessary conditions by pumping water into the Earth’s crust and fracturing the hot rocks below. Heat from the Earth warms the water, whose resulting steam is channeled back to the surface, powering turbines to create electricity. The water is then pumped back underground.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Ormat geothermal plant contract OK’d by Imperial Irrigation District; plant will get the 6800 acre-feet of water it needs
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 8, 2008 at 6:26 am
From the Imperial Valley Press:
A geothermal plant in Brawley will be getting 6,800 acre-feet of water a year for its 24-acre plant, set to go on line at the end of this year. The contract between Ormat Nevada Inc. and the Imperial Irrigation District was finalized at the IID board meeting Tuesday.
“I think we’re seeing the intersection of some fairly dramatic events,” said Andy Horne, the county’s deputy chief executive officer of natural resources development.
The Ormat decision comes as the IID is moving to start a water rationing program for the first time in its history. Michael King, Water Department manager, said Ormat would be expected to work within the guidelines of the equitable distribution program.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
(Note: picture is not of the Ormat facility, but of an already working geothermal plant in the Salton Sea area.)
Imperial Irrigation District board ponders geothermal plant’s water request
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 24, 2008 at 6:03 amFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
An informational item on a new geothermal plant turned into a major discussion between the Imperial Irrigation District board and the public during Tuesday’s meeting.
The geothermal plant, built by Ormat Nevada Inc. and stationed in Brawley, is set to go online by the beginning of 2009. But it will use a large amount of water — about 6,800 acre-feet on a 24-acre plant — and more water than other geothermal plants already built. The IID board was set to review a draft for a 20-year water contract with Ormat, and community members weighed in with complaints, requests and possible solutions to the water problems the Valley faces.
“We’re not attempting to limit their (Ormat’s) ability to use and purchase their water in the Imperial Valley,” said Mark Osterkamp, president of the Imperial County Farm Bureau board.
But, Osterkamp said, he wanted to welcome reasonable water users. He called for the IID to give all landowners an equal amount of water per acre. He said he felt that farmers were forced into fallowing to conserve water, and wanted to see stricter requirements placed on incoming businesses.
IID Director Anthony Sanchez responded, saying it was “every intention for this board to not take away from ag.”
Osterkamp questioned how that would be done if Ormat is not going to provide its own water.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Imperial Valley: Water supply & growth of the geothermal power industry at odds
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 21, 2008 at 3:52 pmFrom the Imperial Valley Press:
On 24 acres of land sits a soon-to-start geothermal plant that’s asking for 6,800 acre-feet of water from the Imperial Irrigation District. The average Imperial Valley farm uses 5.5 to 6 acre-feet of water per acre, but Ormat’s new plant in Brawley, which will go on line by the end of the year, would use 283 acre-feet per acre — almost 47 times as much as the farmland that was there previously.
But this huge water request comes at a time when the Imperial Valley could be facing water rationing. The IID has declared a supply-demand imbalance for 2008, meaning the Valley is set to go over its 3.1 million acre-feet cap. For 2009, the district is developing a plan that would limit how much water farmers, businesses and cities can use.
“We’re going to find ways to create that water,” said IID board President John Pierre Menvielle about the resources businesses like Ormat would use.
But the short supply of water and the potential growth in the geothermal industry — Ormat has an expansion to its Brawley plant in the works for 2009 — has many wondering where the water is going to come from. And farmers are especially worried, as geothermal will be drawing on the same source that farmers use for irrigation.
Read more from the Imperial Valley Press by clicking here.
Coso Geothermal Project close to ruling on groundwater pumping from southern Inyo county
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 4, 2008 at 7:37 amFrom Bishop’s Inyo Register:
Coso Geothermal Project is closer to a possible ruling on its controversial proposal to pump water near Little Lake in Southern Inyo, about 19 months after initially seeking approval from the county. Running out of the water it needs to operate, the electrical generating plant isn’t the only entity with a vested interest in the county’s decision.
Little Lake Ranch, LLC and others are worried the pumping project will have a “devastating impact” on the lake and surrounding riparian areas. A public comment period on the groundwater pumping proposal comes to an end Saturday, Sept. 6.
The Coso Operating Company, LLC, is seeking a 30-year conditional use permit from the Inyo County Planning Commission to extract groundwater from two existing wells on the Coso Hay Ranch property in Rose Valley at the southern end of Inyo County. The permit is asking to withdraw 3,000 gallons per minute or 4,800 acre-feet per year and construct a nine-mile long pipe from the wells to the plant to supplement a shrinking geothermal reservoir.
Coso argues the pumping plan is the only economically feasible way to keep the plant generating at capacity. The plan calls for mitigation guidelines and “trigger levels,” such as a decrease in the lake level of 10 percent, to prevent any permanent damage.
Opposing the project is Little Lake Ranch, and specifically Gary Arnold, the ranch’s legal counsel, representing Arnold, Bleuel, LaRochelle, Matthews and Zirbel. Arnold is also a member of the 1,200-acre ranch and private hunting club. The property includes Little Lake, a 1.6-mile riparian corridor and five ponds. Arnold and the ranch are arguing that the proposed pumping will suck Little Lake dry, leaving it to face a very long-term recovery. Arnold noted he is using statistics from the Hydrology Model included in the Draft Environmental Impact Report to argue his claim.
Read more from the Inyo Register by clicking here.
Geothermal energy: the ultimate renewable resource
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 2, 2007 at 7:54 amHere’s an interesting article on how geothermal energy and solar power resources are being tapped in the Salton Sea area and other California desert regions. From the San Francisco Chronicle:
Imperial County – Vincent Signorotti’s power plant sits on the edge of the Salton Sea, surrounded by irrigated cropland in the middle of a scorched desert. Beyond the lake, beyond the patch of green fields, the desert seems empty. But it holds all the energy Signorotti’s plant will ever need. Energy that could play a key role in California’s fight against global warming.
The plant runs on hot water, pumped from deep underground and flashed into steam to turn turbines. With 10 generators near the lakeshore, the facility produces enough electricity for 255,000 homes, and the company that owns it wants to expand. Other companies are drilling nearby, hoping to build their own geothermal plants. “We’re very lucky,” said Signorotti, a vice president with CalEnergy Operating Corp., as he considered all the energy beneath his feet. “This is really the crown jewel of undeveloped renewable resources.”
A renewable-energy boom is under way in the Southern California desert. The region’s open, empty spaces have room for big projects – such as vast solar energy farms – that can generate energy on a grand scale while producing few, if any, greenhouse gasses. Dozens of new solar and geothermal generating stations have been proposed, from Lancaster to the Arizona and Mexico borders. They won’t be cheap to build, possibly raising the costs Californians pay for power. But with the state’s utilities scrambling to find more renewable energy, the projects are moving forward.
Few places in the country have better potential. Low-level volcanic activity near the Salton Sea – a large, salty lake in Imperial County – can feed geothermal plants running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And with its cloudless skies and bone-dry air, the desert has ideal conditions for solar plants. “You’re creating all this power without harming the environment,” said Avi Brenmiller with Solel Solar Systems, which plans to build a giant solar facility in the Mojave with backing from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. “This can be like the next oil supply for California.”
However, the downside is that plants are expensive to build, making renewable energy sometimes cost more than other traditional forms of energy.
A big user of geogthermal resources is, not surprisingly, Iceland, which is working on expanding geothermal energy here in America. To read more the rest of this article from the San Francisco Chronicle, click here.
Here’s an article from “The Street” regarding geothermal energy:
Geothermal power is expensive to tap into (though cheap to maintain) because it involves an exploration and drilling process similar to oil. As with other types of power, sky-high oil prices are making it more attractive. It’s as clean as energy comes, and a well-managed field churns up a steady stream of steam power day in and day out for decades at a time.
It probably won’t lower heat and electricity prices for consumers in the short term, but investments being made in the U.S. now should in the long run drive innovation and broaden competition in our energy market. That can’t be a bad thing for consumers.
Geothermal energy is entirely domestic, making it more reliable than oil or natural gas. And it’s entirely renewable if managed properly, making its prices, if not lower, then at least more predictable.
To read the full text of this article from The Street, click here.
New water war brewing in Inyo County
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 23, 2007 at 7:54 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
In an arid Eastern Sierra region where people have had a keen appreciation for water since Los Angeles raided their supplies nearly a century ago, a new water war is brewing. But this time the combatants are locals: A hunting club is battling a geothermal plant for control of an aquifer beneath the southern Owens Valley’s lava flows and desert scrub.
The hunters view the aquifer as the lifeblood of their 50-year-old private club, Little Lake Ranch, and its spring-fed wetlands hugging U.S. Highway 395. Their opponent, Coso Operating Co., sees the aquifer as a storehouse of the 4,800 acre-feet of water it will need each year to continue running what it calls environmentally friendly steam-driven turbines already providing about 250,000 homes with electricity.
Coso’s hydrologists estimate the aquifer contains about 5 million acre-feet of water. But in a report to county planners, lawyers for the ranch argued that Little Lake is only about 3 feet deep and because of that, even a small decrease in water level could have serious ramifications for vegetation and wildlife.
The power plant operation, which netted $50 million as recently as 2004, also generates about $5 million in annual tax revenues and royalties for rural Inyo County. That’s about 5% of its $80-million annual budget. The median household income in the county, where about 18,000 residents are scattered across 10,000 square miles, is about $35,000, according to U.S. census figures.
In the middle are county officials who must decide whether to grant Coso’s application to build pipelines and pump water nine miles across the desert from the aquifer to the power plant, which, after 20 years in operation, is running low on well water. “It’s a tough one,” said Inyo County Administrator Ron Juliff. “If there was ever an issue that could get this valley really stirred up, this is it.”
To read the full text of this article from Los Angeles Times, click here.
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