New Mexico Getting First Geothermal Power Project
Good news for New Mexico. Raser Technologies is beginning construction of the state’s first geothermal power project.
Phase one will put out 10 MW starting in early 2009, with phase two expanding that output to 20-25 MW – a fair amount of electricity for a new technology. It will be one of the first in the US to use low temperature geothermal power generation. Because of this technology, the site being used is actually a well drilled more than 20 years ago, but wasn’t hot enough for the capabilities of the time. So previously unusable sites are now able to produce useable energy at a competitive price.
Geothermal is gaining a lot of visibility as an energy resource, from smaller uses like the Colorado Fossil Fuel-Free Community to Google plunking down a cool $10M last week. While the projects so far definitely lean to the smaller scale, it’s possible that improved technology, as illustrated by Raser, could make it a much more interesting renewable energy resource soon.
Via Rasertech