Geothermal energy in Senate spotlight

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, Iceland president push for more research funding, favorable development policies for clean energy resource

Petroleum News Staff & Wire Reports

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, called on Congress Sept. 26 to encourage geothermal energy development by funding more research to advance technology for producing the potentially low-cost energy source.

“Unfortunately geothermal energy has not gotten the attention that other renewable energy sources have,” Murkowski said at a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing. “Along with ocean energy, it received relatively little federal assistance in the Energy Bill two years ago.”

Murkowski is a co-sponsor of the National Geothermal Initiative Act of 2007, legislation aimed at advancing geothermal energy development with a national goal to achieve 20 percent of total electrical output from geothermal resources by 2030.

“If we spend money now to advance geothermal technology, it will help the entire nation, not just in the West, but across the country,” she said.

With fuel prices at near-record highs, hot water heated naturally by the earth can provide utilities a fuel at little or no cost, Murkowski said.

Yet geothermal power currently meets only three-tenths of 1 percent of the nation’s electricity needs, due to the high capital costs of siting and building geothermal plants, she said.

At least half of Alaska’s communities could employ geothermal heat sources to produce electricity, and nearly a dozen proposed geothermal projects currently await additional federal assistance, the senator said.

Iceland’s leader testifies

Iceland is the world leader in geothermal energy development, obtaining nearly 72 percent of its energy from local renewable energy sources such as geothermal and hydropower.

“Our task is to find the technology to harness the fire inside the planet,” said Grímsson, who also thanked Murkowski for inviting him to attend the Arctic Energy Technology Conference Oct. 15-18 in Anchorage.

He said Alaska’s geothermal energy resource could become an investment magnet, if developed properly.

Though Iceland had to beg for corporate investment 25 years ago, companies today have lined up to gain access to the country’s low-cost, clean energy opportunities, Grímsson said.

“The companies doing business in Iceland have found that geothermal energy is over 30 percent more profitable than any other form of clean energy today,” he told the Senate panel.

Grímsson said geothermal energy development could be extraordinarily important for Alaska, providing an alternative to oil and gas that help smaller communities build their economies and improve the lives of their residents.

He also said investors in Iceland are eager to work with Alaska to develop geothermal projects in the state.