POWER December 2010 - 28

TOP PLANTS
Blue Mountain Faulkner 1
Geothermal Power Plant,
Humboldt County, Nevada
Owner/operator: Nevada Geothermal Power Inc.
Courtesy: Nevada Geothermal Power Inc.
Completed in 2009 and partially funded under the American Reinvestment and
Recovery Act, the 50-MW Blue Mountain Faulkner 1 Geothermal Power Plant is
harnessing large amounts of renewable energy by tapping into an underground
geothermal reservoir in northern Nevada. This subterranean source of heat allows
the binary plant to generate pollution-free baseload electricity.
By Angela Neville, JD
H
ot rocks are hot business in the electric
power sector these days. Currently,
the U.S. has approximately
2,998.5 MW of geothermal energy capacity
installed, which is 30.42% of the world's
total. Proposed and planned U.S. geothermal
plants now total approximately 7,800
MW-more than double the geothermal
generating capacity that's already online.
Currently identified geothermal resources
in the U.S. could provide more than 20,000
MW of power to our nation, and it is estimated
that undiscovered resources could
provide five times that amount.
There are three general types of geothermal
plants:
■ Dry steam. Dry steam systems work
by tapping into the naturally occurring
pockets of steam or hot water that rise
from deep underground, bringing with
28
them the energy stored by rocks far below
Earth's surface. The steam or hot
water is then used to drive turbines and
produce electricity. The best known dry
steam projects are the Geysers plants in
northern California.
■ Flash steam. Flash steam plants flash
high-pressure hot fluids to vapor at lower
pressures and then use that vapor to
make power.
■ Binary. Binary plants recover energy from
hot fluids to heat a secondary fluid that is
used to produce electricity.
One of the great advantages of geothermal
energy is that it can be produced with minimal
environmental impacts. Another benefit
is that geothermal energy can provide continuous
baseload electric power generation, unlike
other renewable resources, such as wind
and solar energy, which are variable.
www.powermag.com
One example of the new wave in geothermal
power generation is the recently completed
50-MW Blue Mountain Faulkner 1
Geothermal Power Plant. To help finance
its project, in November 2009, Nevada
Geothermal Power Inc. (NGP) applied for
and received a $57.9 million cash grant
from the U.S. Department of the Treasury
in lieu of tax credits for its geothermal
power plant. This cash grant was funded by
the American Reinvestment and Recovery
Act. The total construction cost for the Blue
Mountain power plant was $180 million,
and debt financing was handled by Trust
Company of the West.
" Geothermal power plants cost less to
construct than most other renewable energy
power plants, which leads to much more
robust project economics, particularly due
to government incentives, " explained Brian
Fairbank, NGP president and CEO.
POWER | December 2010
http://www.powermag.com
POWER December 2010

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