The rhythmic hum of spinning turbines is constant at Ormat Technologies’ geothermal power plant in south Reno, a rolling sagebrush landscape dotted with wild horses.The facility looks like a giant Lego set only a heroic parent could complete: A muscular network of pipes, tanks, wells, and turbines.It generates electricity 24 hours a day, thanks to the limitless heat beneath our feet, says Ormat’s Marisol Collons, adding,“We’re looking for temperatures, on average between 270 and 325 [Farenheit].”Here’s how geothermal energy works. Hot water is extracted from deep underground – below groundwater – through a high-pressure well. When the water hits the surface, the pressure drops, and the water turns to steam, which fills and heats the pipes.Kaleb Roedel/Mountain West News BureauOrmat Technologies’ geothermal power plants in south Reno, Nev, extract hot water from deep underground through a high-pressure well.
“That is what’s actually spinning that turbine to generate that power out for the electricity,” Collons said.Ormat’s Steamboat Hills complex, which consists of six power plants, generates about 100 megawatts, which is enough to power about 80,000 homes.In all, Nevada produces more than 800 megawatts of geothermal at any given time – second in the nation behind California – which makes up nearly 10% of Nevada’s electricity.But those numbers could be much higher, said Jim Faulds, associate director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and the state geologist.“The region that we live in is one of the largest geothermal provinces on Earth,” Faulds said. “And one of the reasons for that is that the crust is extending.”So much so that Nevada is growing by 2 acres every year.“As the crust thins,” he continued, “it brings warmer parts of the earth, like the mantle, up closer to the surface.”And renewable energy developers are racing to harness that heat.This year, the Nevada Division of Minerals has been slammed with permit applications for geothermal exploration, said Dustin Holcomb, the agency’s fluid minerals manager.“We’ve had the busiest year in application submittals in over a decade, so geothermal is ramping back up,” Holcomb said.So is the revenue the state brings in from geothermal. Last year, Nevada collected $14.3 million in geothermal leases and royalties, which is nearly $6 million more than two years prior, Holcomb said. And Nevada is not the only hotspot for this energy source. In Idaho, the nation’s largest geothermal heating system warms buildings in downtown Boise. There’s also a large-scale geothermal plant in southern New Mexico. And Colorado is offering grants and tax credits to support the development and use of geothermal in the state.U.S. Department of Energy The U.S. Department of Energy’s enhanced geothermal research project near Milford, Utah.
Then there’s Utah, where the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) is pouring millions of dollars into researching enhanced geothe