Last week, Department of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne announced an initiative to move forward on potentially developing 190 million acres of Federally-owned or managed land for geothermal energy generation.
The initiative is quite a reversal for the Bush Administration, since this past summer the government attempted to freeze solar applications in order to work through a procedural environmental assessment (interpreted as a delay tactic to most, and the moratorium was scratched after public uproar).
Now at least the government has put together a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement for leasing land to develop geothermal generation, and once enacted, the government will begin to identify and more closely examine sections of federal land.
Climate Progress considers geothermal among the more promising renewable energies, particularly because it could contribute to baseload power (as an MIT study found in 2007).
As the press release for Kempthorne’s announcement notes, geothermal development in the U.S. is making good progress, but there’s room for much more:
The United States is already the world leader in generating electricity using geothermal energy, with about 16,000 gigawatt-hours of electricity generated in 2005. Almost half of this production and 90 percent of U.S. geothermal resources occur on Federal lands. (One megawatt of geothermal energy provides enough power to meet all the electricity needs of more than 1,000 homes. A gigawatt, which is 1000 megawatts, can power more than 1 million homes.)
This data makes clear that Federal lands are an important piece of renewable energy development, and this initiative is a major step for geothermal. Kudos to Sec. Kempthorne. Other Departments and Agencies should follow suit – and quickly – in order to streamline procedures and deploy other clean energy technologies.
– Kari M.
Related Posts:
Hot rocks are a rockin’ hot climate solution Geothermal Resources Geothermal: An Underrated Climate Solution U.S. geothermal is hot
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What is the ecologic footprint of the 20 odd existing footprints on public land? If it is limited than I see no downside.
Now they’re cookin’!
Provided it’s a closed loop system, what’s not to like about it?
Constant free fuel…
mauri pelto — Have a look.
http://www.fotosearch.com/photos-images/geothermal.html
I have not been trained as an engineer, but I do pride myself with being able to hold my own when it comes to the technicals. This I fear is not commonplace though.
The quoted statistic is a little short on its explanation. It freely switches between gigawatt generation (a rate or velocity) to gigawatt-hours (a total or balance). We can have a greater impact if we fully explain ourselves to those who aren’t immersed in the numbers everyday.
A crucial value left out is the actual rate of generation which is around 1.8 gigawatts or about 2 million homes. Although this number is easily derived from the values given, it is a much better representation of real world results. A person new to alternative energy can now see that 2 million out of 100+ million homes is receiving energy from geothermal.
After 8 years of neocon doubletalk (or call it “newspeak”), be wary.
BTW: While the northeast has no hot spots, it has easily accesible year-round 50 deg groundwater that works much better with heat pumps than 25 or 95 degree air. These installations are becoming increasingly popular, especially in new homes with good insulation.