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Feds call for comment on geothermal plan Applications for small power plant at a hot springs on Bell Island in Southeast are included in the plan; could be online in 2009 Kristen Nelson Petroleum News
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service have a draft programmatic environmental impact statement out for geothermal leasing in the western U.S., including Alaska.
Three Alaska applications, all related to a small geothermal resource in Southeast, are considered in the draft PEIS.
Alaska meetings on the proposed plan are July 8, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Alaska Energy Authority, 813 W. Northern Lights Blvd. in Anchorage, and July 9, 5:30 to 7:30, at the Fairbanks North Star Public Library Auditorium, 1215 Cowles St. in Fairbanks.
The record of decision on the final PEIS will identify whether geothermal leasing is appropriate on lands identified in lease applications pending as of Jan. 1, 2005, and will complete processing of those applications, BLM said June 13. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 required that the agencies establish a program to reduce by 90 percent the backlog of geothermal lease applications pending as of the beginning of 2005 by Aug. 8, 2010.
The June 13 publication of a notice in the Federal Register began a 90-day public comment period. The agencies’ preferred alternative considers approximately 117 million acres of public lands and 75 million acres of National Forest lands for potential geothermal leasing. Alternative A is the no action alternative, with no BLM land use plans amended; alternative B is the proposed action; alternative C would have considered leasing lands for commercial power generation only if they are within 10 miles of the centerline of an existing 20-mile corridor from existing transmission lines and lines currently under development.
90% of existing geothermal energy production on federal lands “Federal lands in the West and Alaska contain the largest potential geothermal resources in this country,” BLM Director Jim Caswell said in a statement. He said there is “strong interest and support” from state and local governments for making geothermal resources available.
Some 530 million acres in the 12 western states have geothermal potential for electrical generation or direct heat application, the agencies said in the draft PEIS. Forty-two percent of that potential is federally controlled, some 142 million acres on BLM-administered lands and 106 million acres within the National Forest System. BLM administers geothermal leasing both on public lands it manages and on lands in the National Forest System where the Forest Service is the surface management agency.
BLM said geothermal energy, which uses heat located naturally beneath the surface of the earth to generate electricity, currently accounts for 8.5 percent of renewable energy produced in the U.S., with the U.S. a world leader in generating electricity using geothermal energy.
The agency said almost half the nation’s geothermal energy production, and about 90 percent of U.S. geothermal resources, are on federal lands. There are 29 geothermal power plants operating under BLM authorization on federal lands in California, Nevada and Utah, with a total capacity of 1,250 megawatts, supplying the needs of 1.2 million homes. At the end of 2007 BLM administered some 480 geothermal leases covering more than 700,000 acres, with 57 of the leases producing geothermal energy, 54 for electrical generation and three for direct use.
Alaska applications on Bell Island north of Ketchikan There are three pending lease applications in Alaska, each for 2,560 acres, and all within the Tongass National Forest.
The three lease applications are by private geothermal developers and encompass much of Bell Island along with a portion of the adjacent mainland. Bell Island is near the southeastern end of the Alaska Panhandle, some 43 miles north of Ketchikan.
Bell Island Hot Springs is included in the application and the agencies said the anticipated use is a 20 megawatt power plant to provide electricity to Bell Island Hot Springs, possibly to the Yes Bay Lodge via underwater cable and to the Swan Lake to Tyee Lake Electrical Intertie, contributing to the electricity supply for the City of Ketchikan. Yes Bay Lodge is in Yes Bay, approximately 8.5 miles west of the lease area.
The electrical intertie would cross Bell Island and is expected to be operational by autumn 2009. Both Bell Island Hot Springs and the Yes Bay Lodge operate on gas/diesel-powered electrical generators.
Exploration activities for the 20 megawatt plant are expected to involve some six temperature gradient holes, and to disturb a total of approximately one acre. If a commercially viable resource is found, the agencies said, drilling operations and development are expected to disturb a further three acres of land; utilization would result in disturbance of a further six acres of land.
Impacts on Bell Island Hot Springs are not a concern, the agencies said, because the springs are not open to the public and the lease applicant is the owner of the springs.
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