Originally published at Montara Energy Ventures.

In August, 2007, MeV acquired a lease and development rights on ~1700 acres (~700 hectares) of land in Nevada’s East Dixie Valley. This area is a Known Geothermal Resources Area (KGRA) with a functioning plant, Ormat’s Dixie Valley 60MW facility, in the near vicinity. Given the parcel’s location in the Sou Hills, we now refer to this parcel as the Sou Hills Prospect. One other key aspect to the Sou Hills Prospect is its proximity to electricity transmission. A distribution line is located within 400m of the southern end of the parcel which connects to a 230kv transmission line owned and operated by Sierra Pacific Power Company. MeV has made one preliminary visit to the Sou Hills Prospect which is recorded here.

Map of Nevada’s KGRAs with Dixie Valley Highlighted


Map of MeV’s Sou Hills Prospect (red oval over T25N, R38E, Sections 10, 15, & 22)


As with any geothermal prospect, exploration is paramount. Before the end of the year, MeV plans to complete aerial, self-potential, soil chemical, and magnetic surveys of the prospect. In addition, MeV plans a 2m shallow temperature survey with at least 100 measurement points (which can and will be adjusted in the field to accommodate the localization of any anomolies.) After collecting and analyzing this data, MeV may drill temperature gradient wells in locations suggested by the analysis of the prior surveys.

In addition to geothermal resource, MeV also observes that this location lies in the desert and is the recipient of copious amounts of sunshine year around. Given that benefit, solar surveys to characterize resource applicability for solar thermal electricity production will also be performed. Finally, there may be wind resource in the area and as such a wind resource analysis will be performed. This will help determine the feasibility of a “double” or “triple” play allowing multi-dimensional harvest of renewable resource below the surface level with geothermal, at surface level with solar thermal, and above surface level with wind all on the same physical property.

NREL May 2004 Solar Radiation Map
(Sou Hills Prospect in Rectangle Area >5 kwh/m²)


NREL 50m Wind Resource Map of Nevada
(Sou Hills Prospect in Rectangular Area – Detail in cutout below)


Zoom in on MeV Sou Hills Prospect – Up to Class 7 Winds observed


In concert, the wind, solar, and geothermal resources can share the same operations and transmission infrastructure. Solar thermal and geothermal can share the same physical generation resources. As solar resources become unavailable (darkness) wind resources in this area tend to increase and peak during night time hours. Of course, geothermal resources are not subject to sunlight and wind conditions and provide a constant baseload power output from the renewable energy park. Presently, the size and feasibility of this approach are unknown and will not be known until the resource assessment has been completed. However, the conditions are right for this approach to work in this specific property and perhaps others located around the world.

As results of resource surveys become available, we will share those results and the progress of our project in general.

Originally published at Montara Energy Ventures.

Lower Steamboat Springs Geothermal Plant

Last week on the way home from the GRC annual meeting, we decided to take a side trip that would take us by the Lower Steamboat Springs Geothermal plant operated by Ormat. The view above is courtesy of Google Maps, the view below was snapped from US 395 about 10 miles south of Reno, Nevada. The entire Steamboat Springs complex (4 plants, Upper and Lower Steamboat Springs) has a nameplate capacity of just over 64 MW.

View of plant from US 395 at ground level

1980’s flashback to Rubik’s Cube

Via Yahoo News:

BUDAPEST, Hungary – A 16-year-old took the top prize at the Rubik’s Cube world championship Sunday, solving the puzzle five times in an average of 12.46 seconds.

But the fastest single attempt was a cool 10.88 seconds, just off the world record of 9.86 seconds.

Yu Nakajima of Japan won the main event for twisting the classic 3×3 cube — which has nine colored tiles on each on its six sides — into the winning position, where all like-colored tiles are on the same face.

Andrew Kang of the United States, who came in second for the main event, set the best time for a single attempt at the championship. The world record has been held by Thibaut Jacquinot of France since May.

The five-attempt event garners the top award of $7,000, prizing consistency over of a single — possibly lucky — win.

More than 250 competitors from 33 countries took part in the event, the first to be held in Hungary — where the game was invented by Erno Rubik in 1974 — since competition began in 1982.

Read more…

The underdog continues his romp through the college football season with USC stepping up as the latest high profile victim…More on the developing season in the entry below.

OSU Opponent Watch

• Youngstown State (4-2) – Played Southern Illinois on the road, lost 17-24. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
• Akron (3-3) – Played Western Michigan on the road, won 39-38. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Washington (2-3) – Bye week.
• Northwestern (3-3) – Played Michigan State on the road, won 48-41 in OT. Conclusion: Unexpected Win
• Minnesota (1-5) – Played Indiana on the road, lost 20-40. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Purdue (5-1) – Played Ohio State at home, lost 7-23. Conclusion: Expected Loss
• Kent State (3-3) – Played Miami (Ohio) at home, lost 13-20. Conclusion: Unexpected Loss
• Michigan State (4-2) – Played Northwestern at home, lost 41-48 in OT. Conclusion: Devestating Loss
• Penn State (4-2) – Played Iowa at home, won 27-7. Conclusion: Expected Win
• Wisconsin (5-1) – Played Illinois on the road, lost 26-31. Conclusion: Tough Loss.
• Illinois (5-1) – Played Wisconsin at home, won 31-26. Conclusion: Quality Win
• Michigan (3-2) – Played Eastern Michigan at home, won 33-22. Conclusion: Tougher than Expected Win

Buckeye opponent’s records after the sixth week, 42-28. After 3 weeks of conference play, Ohio State, Illinois, and Michigan have no losses and are in contention for the Big 10 championship. Penn State rebounded with a win over sagging Iowa, Indiana continues to surprise blasting Minnesota. Michigan struggled again with an athletic quarterback running the spread (surprise, surprise.) And Illinois is playing hard-nosed football again knocking Wisconsin from the ranks of the unbeaten. With Missouri’s play (the lone Illini loss) – this team looks tough and for real. I’m not completely sold on them yet, but the talent level is certainly higher and they’re playing well together.

Quick Hits from Around College Football

Teams that look like mythical national championship (MNC) contenders from week 5: LSU, Ohio State,and California.

These are the undefeated survivors; their play to-date and/or competition level leaves room for doubt:
Arizona State, Boston College, Cincinnati, Kansas, Missouri, Connecticut, South Florida, and Hawaii .

These teams are the “Top 10” of the 1 loss club:
Oklahoma, USC, Illinois, Oregon, South Carolina, West Virginia, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Virginia, and Indiana

Game of the week? It’s a no-brainer. Stanford 24, USC 23 in Southern California…This arguably, is as bad, if not worse than the Michigan meltdown against App State in week one. Runner up: Notre Dame 20, UCLA 6. The Bruins ruined Charlie’s perfect season – I’m happy the streak didn’t end against a Big 10 team. So much for the Pac 10 being the strongest conference…

Mismatch of the week, Division III Wittenberg whipped Earlham on the road, 73-0. Not a good week for Indiana teams playing Ohio teams…

My Special Top 12 rankings: (Why Top 12? That’s where you need to be to get into BCS contention.) Once again, due to underdogs biting, the rankings get a shakeup. Last week, I gave undefeated teams the benefit of the doubt. This week, there is a tiering, undefeated teams playing well are tier 1, once defeated teams rebounding are tier 2, undefeated teams not likely to stay perfect are tier 3, and once defeated teams that haven’t rebounded are tier 4.

1. LSU – On the ropes for 3 quarters, they pulled it out when it mattered. They don’t look as unbeatable these days.
2. California – Sometimes a bye week is all that is required…
3. Ohio State – A quality road win, the offense regressed this week.
4. Missouri – May actually be in position to win the Big 12 after blasting Nebraska, who’d a thunk it?
5. Boston College – Mushed the MAC this week, rolling along a little under the radar.
6. Oklahoma – Redeemed at the Red River.
7. Oregon – Bye week.
8. Illinois – Quality win over Wisconsin (who had been asking for it all season).
9. Cincinnati – Quality road win over Rutgers.
10. South Florida – Struggled in win over 3-3 Florida Atlantic – Kentucky beat them by 28 a week ago…
11. Arizona State – Struggled against a bad Washington State team.
12. USC – Probably shouldn’t be here, but too talented to completely abandon. They’ve had their stinker game, look for them to win out and then moan about being left out of the MNC game.

My Special Bottom 5 rankings: (Why bottom 5? If you finish there you should be relegated to I-AA) – This week, we’ve had a shakeup at the bottom of the standings too with Notre Dame and Rice, gasp, winning!

1. UCLA – They’re an honorary #1 for getting blown out by Utah and then breaking Notre Dame’s perfect winless season yesterday.
2. Florida International – 0-6 this season.
3. Utah State – 0-5 this season.
4. Colorado State – 0-5 this season.
5. Marshall – 0-5 this season.

In the coming week I’ll post an Kent State/OSU preview, a game review of Kent State/OSU, and a Weekend Update Sports edition.

Another trendy upset pick, another disappointment for those folks. The Buckeye defense came to play and demonstrated it throughout the game, only giving up a meaningless touchdown toward the end of the game as they shifted to prevent. It could have (and perhaps should have) been a shutout if the D coordinators continued calling pressure. Well, I missed on this one in my preview, I thought both offenses would do more predicting a 35-24 Buckeye win. Without the interceptions, we would have seen OSU put up 35, but Purdue was nowhere near 24.

The Good

• 7 of 14 PU possessions were three and out
• Only one sustained drive allowed, 87 yards (PU’s last drive)
• The kicking game, 3-3 on FGs, kickoffs through the endzone, coverage on punts and kickoffs improved, returns OK
• First quarter offense, 2/3 possessions resulted in TDs
• Maurice Wells picked up the running load and acquitted himself well
• Good execution/concetration in a tough, conference, road, night game

The Bad

• The offensive effort in quarters 2-4
• QB pressure in the fourth quarter (coaching, it’s clear the players were bringing it when called)
• Offensive play calling in the 2nd half, did the coaching staff not notice that every play was a blitz?
• Many, many dropped interceptions by the defense
• Not stomping on an opponent when they’re down, this is a flaw that needs to be corrected that has existed across multiple seasons. Letting a team with better talent hang around like this is a recipe for upset in the future.

The Ugly

• Beanie’s ankle. It’s clearly more injured than previously thought. If he can’t go (and Saine isn’t in) the offense is not effective.
• Boeckman’s penchant to throw late, telegraph deep receivers, and underthrow resulted in 3 interceptions. Against better talent, that will result in a loss. It needs to be corrected and fast.

This was a dominating and suffocating win by the Buckeyes. The outcome was not in doubt through the second offensive possession in the first quarter. It was a good win on the road over a ranked, undefeated opponent. By no stretch of the imagination will I say that the Bucks are unbeatable, but they are on the right road to play for a Big 10 championship and perhaps more. I want them to stay focused and hungry, and I’d love for the national press to keep saying that they can’t win and aren’t worthy to be in another big game. This team plays best when under the radar.