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What is Green?

It’s not only about sustainability, but it’s also about $. After all, eco- is a prefix in ecology as well as economy. Recently due to a comment on the blog a new site came to our attention, Cleantech Finance Insider. Since we happen to be acquainted with the author and the initial content has been such high quality, we thought we’d give it a plug.

So, you want to spin up a renewable energy project and change the world? Yes? Well, read the three part series on Renewable Energy Startups keys to Success on Cleantech Finance Insider. It’s a great place to start and the perspective painted by Bill in these entries certainly rings true to us. If you’re looking for a distinct voice on the finance part of the house, add Cleantech Finance Insider to your RSS reader.

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Financial Post Discovers Heat

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.

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Neal Hot Springs Underway

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.

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Raser Makes Progress

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.

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16MW Well for Polaris

Polaris Geothermal published an update on well performance for its San Jacinto – Tizate field in Nicaragua. The most recent result showed that a well completed in late November to a depth of 1,200m (~3,900 feet) flowed sufficiently to yield 16MW at 265C (~500F) resource. Polaris continues drilling at the site and intends to increase production from present levels of 10MW to 34MW considering the new drilling program.

Also, Polaris indicated their intention to employ new Kalina cycle technology from Exorka to boost existing production with existing resources.

San Jacinto Plant
Photo of San Jacinto Plant in Nicaragua
Photo Credit: Polaris Geothermal

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