Geothermal energy for heat increases green credentials and saves big for Reno casino
The Peppermill Resort Spa Casino in Reno/ Nevada is saving big each year having replaced natural gas heating with heat derived from geothermal wells drilled on the resort’s property.
It took the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino $9.7 million and 4,400 feet of drilling, but the resort completed one of the most ambitious geothermal projects in the United States in 2010, tapping into a vast reservoir of natural geothermal activity more than three quarters of a mile underground to heat the property’s two million square feet of hotel, resort and casino operations.
Many in the geothermal energy industry know the Peppermill as venue for the annual GRC Annual Meeting regularly over the years. Not many though know about the geothermal credentials.
Several years after making that investment, the decision to invest in geothermal energy is paying off in spades for the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino. The property has saved $2.2 million in natural gas bills they used to pay each year, and their carbon footprint has been drastically reduced by 12,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions per year, using the sustainable energy resource.
The Peppermill’s pools, hot tubs, domestic water for showers, and mechanical systems, generate all of their heating energy from their geothermal operation 24 hours a day seven days a week. In addition to pumping the naturally heated water from the ground, the resort has also installed a re-injection well that returns the geothermal fluids back underground, to be reheated by the volcanic energy after it has heated the property.
While the state-of-the-art geothermal system headlines the Peppermill’s green initiatives, the resort has invested millions more in making every facet of its operation more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. This combination of green initiatives makes The Peppermill Resort Spa Casino one of the leading examples of environmental stewardship in the nation. For the full list of those initiatives see link below.
What many don’t know, the casino – even though only for a short period – generated electricity from the wells during a GRC Annual Meeting, I believe it was in 2009 with a small UTC PowerCycle unit.
Source: Peppermill Reno