Department of Defense sits on large geothermal potential
Coso China Lake geothermal plant at the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station in California.
Alexander Richter
24 Jul 2010
Land owned by the U.S. Department of Defense has great potential for geothermal power generation, which could prove to be a "gold mine" for the department and a valuable energy supply for the U.S.
In a reporty by the U.S. Department of Defense, it says that land owned by the department has a “potential for up to 926 GW of geothermal power. [Comment: it is not clear from the document if it means 926GWh, if so it would mean an installed capacity of around 120MW, which seems too little, and an installed capacity of 926,000MW would be probably too much] It identified suitable lands at bases across the country, from the east coast to the west coast, and from Florida as far north as Missouri.
While observing that there are some conditions for a successful geothermal program, at the bottom of slide 33 you can find the money quote with this modestly stated point: “Sell-back excess capacity.” It could be that the U.S. public is sitting on a renewable energy gold mine in the form of Defense Department property, which could play a critical role in our new energy future.” (link to slides below)
In another article it says that “The Army Corps of Engineers has identified hundreds of DOD-owned sites that could generate an impressive amount of geothermal energy.
One potential source noted by the Army Corps of Engineers is hundreds of oil and gas wells – especially in the gulf coast region in Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, and Mississippi. These wells produce as a by-product hot water that can be used as a source of geothermal heat.
Oil wells seem like an unlikely source of renewable energy, but governments and private industry throughout the U.S. have been investigating using these wells for clean energy. In terms of cost, adding portable geothermal generators to existing wells is inexpensive because it doesn’t require the separate drilling and fracturing processes of regular geothermal power. In fact, oil wells need to spend additional money now to get rid of the hot water.
The DOD also owns nearly 2 million acres of land with hot enough water at the necessary depth for generating conventional geothermal energy.
At the identified sites by the Department of Energy it says that it “can generate enough power for its own needs generate revenue by selling the excess power back to local utilities.”
Background Information:
Geothermal power tapped from land owned by the Department of Defense (pdf alert).
Very informative article by CleanTechnica.com
Source: EnergyBoom
