Summary of Comments on DOE-Industry Cooperation by Geothermal Industry Panel
The geothermal industry has matured significantly in recent years, going from early stages of prospect identification and exploration, through drilling and resource assessment, field development and power plant construction, and finally to the operation of mature geothermal fields. All of this has been done within the space of a brief quarter century. Probably no other resource industry in modem times has seen the dramatic growth and maturation as has the geothermal industry. Certainly there has been no comparable speed of development and maturation in, for example, the biomass or solar or wind or photovoltaic resource industries. And nuclear, despite double the number of decades of research and development, and infinitely greater cash outlay, is still sinking under unresolved problems of public health and safety. The enormous and rapid geothermal growth, resulting in the installation and operation of some 2,800 MW of power generation facilities, plus perhaps 2,000 thermal MW of nonelectric facilities, all within the past 25 years, has left unresolved issues in its wake. This has been unavoidable: any new and immensely successful technology inevitably pushes forward so fast on so many fronts that there is not a smooth or complete coverage of all points of importance. The Department of Energy, through its Geothermal Program, has helped the growing geothermal industry in many ways. And this has not been give-aways: the DOE geothermal dollars have enables a reliable, safe, environmentally acceptable technology to come on-line for Americans at an acceptable price at a time when energy has been needed. This is an indigenous, jobs creating, imports-reducing industry. Exports of American geothermal goods and services are being seen all across the world. However, because we are in many ways a highly mature industry, with commercial equity- and debt-financing for typical development projects, and with new interest being expressed by electric utilities in additional geothermal power facilities, we are caught in a ''Catch 22'' that is deeply troubling. We are congratulated--and then ignored--by government officials, and told to move forward ,on our own feet; while at the same time, financiers and electric utilities tell us that for there to be more geothermal development, we must resolve the unresolved issues: better predictive exploration, greater drilling success rates, more accurate reserves assessments, problem-free field operations, lower development costs, improved methodology for risk reduction.
- Research Organization:
- GeothermEx, Inc.; National Geothermal Association, President
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 891971
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-920378-35; TRN: US200622%%662
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Proceedings, Geothermal Energy and the Utility Market - The Opportunities and Challenges for Expanding Geothermal Energy in a Competitive Supply Market; San Francisco, CA, March 24-26, 1992, Geothermal Program Review X
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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09 BIOMASS FUELS
29 ENERGY PLANNING
POLICY AND ECONOMY
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DOLLARS
DRILLING
ELECTRIC UTILITIES
EXPLORATION
EXPORTS
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
GEOTHERMAL FIELDS
GEOTHERMAL INDUSTRY
GOODS AND SERVICES
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POWER PLANTS
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