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Getting power from hot water DOE’s program manager for geothermal technologies looks at Alaska’s hot water resources, funding sought for development projects Patricia Jones Petroleum News Contributing Writer
The remote locations of Alaska’s most viable geothermal resources creates a substantial roadblock to development, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s program manager for geothermal technologies.
Roy Mink, who heads DOE’s $25 million Geothermal Technologies division within the department’s Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy section, spent a week in late September touring some of Alaska’s geothermal sites.
“The main purpose was to look at various geothermal sites, determine their potential and to see how DOE might be able to help develop,” Mink said in a telephone interview with Petroleum News on Sept. 30, after his Alaska trip. “The biggest roadblock is the remoteness.”
Geothermal resources can be tapped directly by drilling for electric production, if underground water is hot enough. Steam generated by the hot water drives a turbine at the surface, creating electricity.
For that simple process, the water temperature needs to be at least 250 degrees Fahrenheit, Mink said. “Three hundred degrees is where it really becomes economic to develop.”
Lower-temperature springs can also produce electricity by including an extra step, Mink said. That binary system uses the geothermal resource to heat a different fluid, such as isobutane, which has a boiling point lower than water. Steam created from the heated fluid is used to drive a power-producing turbine. The fluid is then condensed from a gas back to a liquid and used again, Mink said.
Underground hot water can also be tapped for auxiliary heat, agricultural use and recreation, he said, similar to the current use of several geothermal resources in Interior Alaska, which are tapped into by Interior lodges for swimming and spas. Project funding sought Mink said his division is seeking additional federal funds through the U.S. energy bill currently being debated to provide some financial assistance to geothermal developers in Alaska and in other states.
“We really want to get something out on the street that will allow entities in Alaska and in other areas to take the edge off the cost of development,” Mink said.
Should funding be approved, a solicitation for a request for proposals should go out early next year, he said.
The project assistance money will be in addition to programs already funded through Geothermal Technologies, Mink said. The division spends roughly one-third of its $25 million budget on geothermal drilling development, about 25 percent on energy conversion projects and about 35 percent on enhanced geothermal systems.
In addition to direct financial assistance, the proposed energy bill contains production tax credits and renewable portfolio standards, which gives utilities credit for including renewable resources in their power mix.
“We think that’s going to be a big benefit particularly for geothermal projects,” Mink said. “(Geothermal) can become competitive with natural gas in the Lower 48 with these incentives through the energy bill.”
Dutch Harbor potential geothermal user One of Alaska’s known geothermal resources is the high-temperature source at the Makushin Volcano, near Unalaska and Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Chain. The geothermal source was drilled and tested 20 years ago, according to Chris Nye, a geologist working for the state Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys.
“Back then, there was about 15 megawatts of demand (from the Dutch Harbor area) and it was clear that there was that much power,” he said. “There was all the energy they needed out there.”
The project was never developed due to the cost of a 10 to 15-mile transmission line from the hot water source to power users in town.
“Development of infrastructure and market forces are acting against development, while acting for development is the cost of diesel and the cost of doing business as usual,” Nye said. “It’s a teeter-totter. Is the price of oil sufficiently high to make it worthwhile?”
Mink points to industrial-sized power use from fish processing plants in Dutch Harbor and Unalaska as an asset for a potential geothermal power project.
“Alaska can promote its potential resources by bringing new industry into an area, such as mineral processing or other energy intensive industries that would consider relocating if they see energy prices that provide savings,” he said. “Rather than supporting existing locations (of industrial electric users), they should look at the potential for industry to come to Alaska.”
Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski told reporters Oct. 1 that he would like to see a metals smelter at Dutch Harbor. The governor said he was “going to be meeting with Sumitomo Metals Mining Corp. and some of the Koreans” about a smelter business for Dutch during his trade mission to Asia, which was scheduled to begin Oct. 3.
Smelters traditionally need low cost sources of fuel to operate in the black. Alcoa, which has an aluminum smelter in Ferndale, Wash., said recently it planned to shutter its Washington plant if the regional power authority goes ahead with announced rate increase. The action would impact 615 jobs, Alcoa said.
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