
{"id":781,"date":"2007-12-06T08:35:45","date_gmt":"2007-12-06T16:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/06\/geothermal-stealth-renewable\/"},"modified":"2007-12-06T11:18:44","modified_gmt":"2007-12-06T19:18:44","slug":"geothermal-stealth-renewable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/2007\/12\/06\/geothermal-stealth-renewable\/","title":{"rendered":"Geothermal: Stealth Renewable"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever wondered why geothermal goes so incognito when the renewable electricity market is so visible? There could be a number of reasons, but we believe it has to do with accessibility to the public and ease of identifying resources.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/pix\/windblowntree.jpg\" alt=\"Wind blown tree in a field\" \/><br \/><small>Photo Credit <a href=\"https:\/\/homepages.ihug.co.nz\/ ~fiski\/pw\/pennin17.html\" target=\"_blank\" >The Pennine Way<\/a><\/small><\/center><br \/>\n<br \/>\nWhen a lay-person sees the tree above, they can easily posit that wind contributed to the unique shape of the tree. And, since we know generally how trees grow, it&#8217;s easy to deduce that there is strong, consistent wind current present in that area. Thus, when people think about wind as a renewable resource, it&#8217;s accessible. There is no magic: wind exists and like a child&#8217;s pinwheel, it can cause things to move which is sufficient to make the connection.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/pix\/drydesert.jpg\" alt=\"Dry desert in the sun.\" \/><br \/><small>Photo Credit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thesafaricompany.co.za\/Picture_Gallery_Scenery.htm\" target=\"_blank\" >The Safari Company<\/a><\/small><\/center><br \/>\n<br \/>\nWhen a lay-person sees the photo above, they can reason that it is dry and that it&#8217;s likely that the sun shines there on a routine basis and rain\/cloud cover aren&#8217;t the norm for the region. The connection between a strong sun presence and the potential for energy is very clear to humans, it&#8217;s accessible.<br \/>\n<br \/>\n<center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/pix\/dixievalley.jpg\" alt=\"Image of Dixie Valley geothermal resource area\" \/><br \/><small>Photo Credit: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seismo.unr.edu\/ftp\/pub\/louie\/class\/453\/album98\/album98.html\" target=\"_blank\" >UNR<\/a><\/small><\/center><br \/>\n<br \/>\nNow contrast the image above with the tree and desert. What do you observe about the physical characteristics of this land? Does it look like this might be a place one could harness natural resources to generate renewable electricity? This photo happens to be from Nevada&#8217;s Dixie Valley, a known geothermal resource area. There is a functioning 60MW geothermal plant in close proximity. The only surface manifestations of the energy potential are hot springs. It&#8217;s much less accessible to a lay-person thinking about hot, fractured rocks with super-critical heated water trapped under a cap rock waiting to escape. Can you visualize it? Unless you&#8217;ve been around the industry or have a geology background, the chances are that it&#8217;s tough to comprehend.<br \/>\n<br \/>\nThe journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" >Live Science<\/a> took a page from VH1&#8217;s &#8220;Where are they now?&#8221; publishing an article on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.livescience.com\/environment\/071204-geothermal-energy.html\" target=\"_blank\" >&#8220;Whatever happened to Geothermal?&#8221;<\/a> It&#8217;s an interesting article and covers many of the issues. Given that geothermal is the only baseload renewable power source (yes gravity hydro is close, but until droughts are solved, it&#8217;s not quite baseload) it seems inevitable that geothermal will be &#8220;rediscovered&#8221; as an energy source. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you ever wondered why geothermal goes so incognito when the renewable electricity market is so visible? There could be a number of reasons, but we believe it has to do with accessibility to the public and ease of identifying resources. Photo Credit The Pennine Way When a lay-person sees the tree above, they can [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/781\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montaraventures.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}