Geothermal Off to a Slow Start in the West

By Renny Mackay, KUNC, 7-27-10

	File photo.

CASPER, WY (KUNC) - Northwestern Wyoming, where hot water gushes from the ground may seem like a perfect place for geothermal power plants. But even in these hotspots this alternative energy is developing slowly.

“The sense is that there is a whole lot of geothermal energy to be developed in the West, but we need to develop the technologies to find it successfully and work with it,” said Karl Gawell, executive director of the Washington-D.C. based Geothermal Energy Association.

Wyoming has only one geothermal energy site, and it’s nowhere near Yellowstone National Park’s legendary geysers. Teapot Dome, outside of Casper, is owned by the U.S. Department of Energy. The small geothermal unit runs in conjunction with an oilfield testing center, and it doesn’t produce much energy, said Lyle Johnson, an engineer at the site.

Other oilfields throughout Wyoming could probably use similar units, Johnson said. But they won’t produce as much energy as areas nearer to Yellowstone.

“There’s been a lot of concern over the years about not interfering with Yellowstone and I don’t think anyone in the geothermal business would seriously want to jeopardize Yellowstone National Park,” Gawell said.

More than a view

There are concerns other than preserving scenery that hamper geothermal development. In remote places, like Wyoming, there aren’t enough transmission lines to move electricity to more populous areas.

Neighbors of geothermal hotspots have also opposed development. The Bureau of Land Management delayed plans to lease land near a popular hot spring for energy development because of the local outcry. It would have been the first geothermal development in Colorado.

“We’ve been accused of, you don’t want it in your backyard,’” said Steve Glover, who lives about three miles from the proposed site of the five megawatt plant. “But we don’t want it in our backyard because of the geology of our backyard.”

Glover worries that geothermal water could leak through fractures in the granite under the land and contaminate his drinking water. Glover and his nieghbors created a group to oppose the development.

“If you read the literature you’ll find that deep geothermal water can contain significant amounts of salt,” Glover said. “It also can contain significant amounts of toxic metal
compounds, of arsenic, lead and mercury, which wasn’t something I wanted to see.”

Finding acceptable alternatives

Such fierce opposition highlights how in many corners of the West, clean energy projects are just as controversial as traditional fossil fuel extraction.

“They’d like to see the energy produced in a green or renewable manner, but they don’t
want to see the facility that is producing it across the valley or near their house,” said Seth Wittke, the lead geothermal researcher at Wyoming’s State Geological Survey.

Getting support for a geothermal plant next to the nation’s first National Park could be harder still. But places like Teapot Dome are more socially acceptable options for geothermal power production, Wittke said.

“Well the oilfields, I would say, they already have the roads and the infrastructure is already there,” he said. “So the oilfield scenario like they’re doing at Teapot, as long as it is long-term feasible to produce energy, I think that’s a good idea.”

If tests go well at Teapot Dome, a second unit could be up and running by the end of the month.

Editor’s note: This piece first aired on KUNC in Colorado as part of the station’s ongoing series on roadblocks to clean energy in the West. You can listen to the report here.

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