Evaluation of the Geothermal Public Power Utility Workshops in California

Technical Report · Fri Oct 01 00:00:00 EDT 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/15009918· OSTI ID:15009918

Farhar, B C

The federal government devotes significant resources to educating consumers and businesses about geothermal energy. Yet little evidence exists for defining the kinds of information needed by the various audiences with specialized needs. This paper presents the results of an evaluation of the Geothermal Municipal Utility Workshops that presented information on geothermal energy to utility resource planners at customer-owned utilities in California. The workshops were sponsored by the Western Area Power Administration and the U.S. Department of Energy's GeoPowering the West Program and were intended to qualitatively assess the information needs of municipal utilities relative to geothermal energy and get feedback for future workshops. The utility workshop participants found the geothermal workshops to be useful and effective for their purposes. An important insight from the workshops is that utilities need considerable lead-time to plan a geothermal project. They need to know whether it is better to own a project or to purchase geothermal electricity from another nonutility owner. California customer-owned utilities say they do not need to generate more electricity to meet demand, but they do need to provide more electricity from renewable resources to meet the requirements of the state's Renewable Portfolio Standard.

• Research Organization: National Renewable Energy Lab., Golden, CO (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC36-99GO10337
• OSTI ID: 15009918
• Report Number(s): NREL/TP-550-36637
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
CUSTOMER-OWNED UTILITIES
ELECTRICITY
EVALUATION
FEEDBACK
GEOPOWERING THE WEST PROGRAM
GEOTHERMAL
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Geothermal Legacy
GEOTHERMAL MUNICIPAL UTILITY WORKSHOPS
INFORMATION NEEDS
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
UTILITIES AND GEOTHERMAL POWER
UTILITY RESOURCE PLANNERS
WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION