Yesterday Canada’s Financial Post authored an interesting article about the nascent geothermal industry and how the stocks of several of the publicly traded North American companies are appreciating. It’s true investors are late to the party in this segment; geothermal has none of the sexiness of a solar or wind play (we maintain this is so because it’s difficult for an amateur to look at the earth and say “bet there’s some steam here, let’s build a plant.” Unlike solar or wind where most people can notice the natural resource “hey, it’s real sunny here” or “hey, it’s real windy here”…)

We like to think of geothermal as being the deep thinker’s renewable (pun intended.) The resource is most often hidden, it requires an understanding of basic thermodynamics, and it has the best yield in megawatt hours of all the renewables. (OK, we’ll listen to arguments about gravity hydro which is also quite good.) Here’s a quote from the article:

Sierra Geothermal, Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. (NGP/TSX-V), and Western GeoPower Corp. (WGP/TSX-V) are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. Polaris Geothermal (GEO/TSX) and U.S. Geothermal Inc. (GTH/TSX) are listed on the main Toronto Stock Exchange.

The largest geothermal company in the world is Or-mat Technologies Inc., (ORA/ NYSE) with a market cap of almost US$2-billion. The seventh North American geothermal company is Raser Technologies Inc. (RZ/PCX), which trades on the ArcaEx.

This enumeration of companies is interesting, but there are some pretty major gaps in this analysis starting with the omission of the largest geothermal operator on the planet, Chevron with nearly 2,000 MWe of production power, mostly in Indonesia and the Philippines (and it sports a market cap of $184B.) Also, there is the omission of large private developer/operators like Caithness/ARCLight who have as large, if not a larger geothermal portfolio as Ormat (~370MWe) – Coso alone for Caithness/ARCLight is a set of 260MWe facilities.

That nitpicking aside, the tone of the article is encouraging and this kind of press can only help in getting the message out that geothermal is a large part of the solution in our march toward energy security and independence.

I could rail about the primary results last night (Ohio, a good place to be from, has shown yet again its inherent inability to select between better and worse – but I digress.) I could talk about the scary notion that Bush is trying to find some positive legacy by driving for a peace plan in the middle east in 10 months. I could talk about the bill coming due for the US (we import more than we export, we spend more than we make, our currency is being massively devalued, hyper inflation is right around the corner – sounds like a third world economy, doesn’t it?)

But in the spirit of and following the lead of other large media outlets, instead I choose to bring you a distraction from that boring stuff. I saw this clip this morning on Greta Christina’s blog and laughed my hind-end off. The sad part, truly sad, is that I recognize each of these scenes. Now, for those of you who simply cannot live without seeing Star Trek cut to Monty Python’s “Knights of the Round Table”, here’s your chance. It’s short, it’s brilliant, and I love it. Hat’s off to the creators, T.Jones and Killa. Between this and the ode to Gary Gygax post, my true freaky geeky colors are showing this week…

Neal Hot Springs in Eastern Oregon, a potential resource uncovered by Chevron in 1979, is now in play. US Geothermal recently announced plans for a full-scale test drilling program that includes plans for a 1,000m (~3,500f) hole to determine the extent of the resource in the area. Geothermometer temperatures are predicted around the 150C (~310F) range.

US Geothermal has taken the Raft River project from prior exploration to commercial operation previously.

D&D Rulebook Photo

Gary Gygax, the creator of Dungeons & Dragons passed away today at age 69. He had apparently been ill for some time and finally succumbed to that illness in his Wisconsin home.

Mr. Gygax had a big influence on my life since I spent a fair amount of (wasted?) time playing D & D and immersing myself in a fantasy world with other malcontents. It was fun, it got me out of the house, and I’m grateful for the social life it provided in those awkward pre-teen years. There have been many innovations since, but Gygax really is the father of the role playing realm. He will be remembered fondly by many people like me.

For awhile there, Raser was releasing a new press release every couple of days for the most minor of events. But now, it’s clear that Raser has entered the geothermal development business in a very serious way and has had some significant steps in transforming into a geothermal power producer. Recently, Raser CEO Brent Cook granted an interview to The Street in which he reiterated the company’s grand plans and vision including announcing 100MW of projects per year (not necessarily finishing) for the first few years, and 150MW per year thereafter in 10MW increments.

This comes on the heels of the news that the company has completed its first well in Utah where a 127C (260F) resource was apparently hit in the Escalante desert region. Their drilling program is proceeding even as the resource is being evaluated for commercial applicability. Coupled with their promise of 155MW worth of funding, this breakthrough puts Raser closer to operation than ever before and moves them into the column of serious developer.