Today in an orchestrated press event in Middletown, California, Calpine announced a few more details about it’s plan to bring up to 80MW more power online at the Geysers. The plan calls for a multi-rig, two-year drilling program and refurbishment of 8 steam turbines. Many dignataries were in attendance and spoke well of the plans.

This announcement is somewhat disappointing though as it doesn’t give any indication that Calpine will use waste heat for bottom cycling and preservation of mass on the property (we estimate Calpine could get as much as 70MW just from that activity with no drilling required.) Nor were there any other forward thinking aspects announced with this plan.

On the positive side, it’s nice to see Calpine investing in the Geysers, the crown jewel of their portfolio. Who knows, if they see some success with this program, perhaps they’ll decide to take another step. One thing is sure, 80MW more of capacity will be welcome in terms of climate impact (and it can’t hurt Calpine’s financials much either in the long term.)

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 31st, 2007 at 12:28 pm and is filed under Business, Geothermal.