Harry Reid Pushes Nevada As "Saudi Arabia of Geothermal Energy"

An anonymous reader writes "Of all the 'mainstream' forms of renewable energy, it seems that geothermal power is always left in the shadows compared to solar and wind power. However, that looks set to change with news that the US Department of Energy will fund geothermal projects in northwestern Nevada and southeast Oregon. With funds from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, the DOE has stated a 'conditional commitment' to provide a partial guarantee for a rumored $98.5 million loan to the Nevada Geothermal Power Company (NGP). According to US Senator Harry Reid, 'Northern Nevada is the Saudi Arabia of geothermal energy.'"

Comments

According to US Senator Harry Reid ...

[WrongSizeGlass]

... that kind of kills it for me. Any politician making such proclamations must be taken with a pound of salt. Wasn't Nevada also proclaimed as the dumping ground for nuclear and toxic waste?

Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ...

[e9th]

Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, is in danger of losing his long-held seat. He needs the pork badly, and the administration is more than willing to help him out.

Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ...

[nebaz]

It makes me wonder, if Senators bring in pork to their state to get re-elected, do you think there would be more pork in general if we repealed the direct election of senators, which some claim would give states more say in the Federal government? As is I think the fact that so much party money is on the line to keep representatives 'pure', which greatly distorts the idea of local elections.

Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about how much Reid is in danger. His opponent is on record for a variety of...odd positions: eliminating the US Department of Education, pulling out of the United Nations, getting rid of Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare; wants to protect our purity of essence and precious bodily fluids by opposing fluoridation of water, similarly wants to get rid of alcohol, thinks global warming is a hoax and is for drilling for oil here, there, everywhere. Is also the nutter who thinks overthrowing the duly elected government of the United States via a violent revolution is a good idea. All Reid has to do is frame the campaign that way and it's pull the lever for the nutter or pull the lever for Reid. He'll beat her by 10 points. That's how bad of a candidate Reid is--she should manage the 25% dead-enders at best. Still bringing in more federal dollars isn't a bad idea for Reid, pork or legitimate (but well-timed).

Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ...

[iluvcapra]

The senators would be appointed by their state legislatures in a manner that's up to them -- in the 19th century the state legislature would hold a vote, or the governor would make an appointment subject to state senate advice and consent, or whatever.

The problem with this approach was that it made senate seats a form of patronage for governors and state political machines, and while the people appointed might have been worthy there was zero democratic accountability, and senate appointment was a notoriously corrupt institution -- take the recent Rod Blagojevich nonsense and imagine it were the norm. Eliminating the direct election of senators in order to control "pork" or earmarks, which are themselves only about 2% of the federal budget, and are at least as big a problem with House members, is a pretty extreme solution.

Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ...

[clarkkent09]

She is not crazy at all and if you think huffington post is a reliable source of information on conservative candidates then you are crazy.

How about having her describe her opinions instead instead: http://www.sharronangle.com/issues/

Or how about the opinion of the people of Nevada: Angle: 50% Reid: 39%

Re:According to US Senator Harry Reid ...

[mrchaotica]

The Washoe County Commission in 1992 rejected fluoridation, and Angle said the Legislature should not approve fluoridation in her county without a vote of its people.

All that indicates to me is that she supports checks and balances between state and local governance, not that she opposes fluoridation.

Her website itself plainly states she wants to eliminate the department of education and social security.

Does that mean she's philosophically opposed to education and safety nets for the poor, or -- more likely, I think -- does it mean she supports decentralization of government (i.e., where the state or local governments would control education and provide social safety nets)?

I don't know anything about this person beyond what I've just read in this thread (and not being a citizen of Nevada, I don't particularly care), but she sounds merely like a supporter of [federalism|checks and balances|states' rights], not a crackpot.

Las Vegas...

[Anonymous Coward]

Las Vegas is the Saudi Arabia of prostitution, booze, gambling, and insane energy use.

It looks like Harry Reid is trying to use the Saudia Arabia of geothermanl energy to power the Saudi Arabia of prostitution.

As long as nobody tries to put a veil on the hookers this plan sounds good to me.

Re:Las Vegas...

[Tackhead]

Las Vegas is the Saudi Arabia of prostitution, booze, gambling, and insane energy use.

"Forget your Saudi Arabia! I'm gonna make my own! With hookers! And blackjack! In fact, forget the energy! Aaw, screw the whole thing!"
- Harry Reid

The problem with geothermal

[overshoot]

is that unlike wind and solar, it's always on. This makes it much more difficult to explain why it won't meet baseline demand.

Re:The problem with geothermal

[Solandri]

The problem with geothermal is that after you extract the heat from the rocks, it takes time for the surrounding rock to heat up the cool spot you've created. This places a natural limit on the rate you can extract heat energy from a geothermal well, thus making it unsuitable for high population density areas like cities. The geological formations in some areas provide their own natural flow of subterranean water, thus constantly carrying in heat from other distant rocks to your geothermal well. But those are exceedingly rare.

Regardless, I am very optimistic about geothermal for meeting the energy needs of low population density areas. On top of that, geothermal heat pumps for heating and air conditioning, while not an energy source, improve efficiency so much that in both hot and cold regions of the country, they will typically pay for themselves in 3-7 years.

Re:The problem with geothermal

[drinkypoo]

The problem with geothermal is that after you extract the heat from the rocks, it takes time for the surrounding rock to heat up the cool spot you've created.

The problem with geothermal power is cleaning up the toxic waste.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: geothermal power is a total failure on all levels. I live within shootin' distance of The Geysers, the most geothermally active region known to exist on Earth. We have a geothermal plant here which is continually over budget and under-producing. The turbine blades are built by Halliburton, which is a disaster in itself. After they have been in service for a certain period of time, they must be cleaned of buildup of toxics like Arsenic which are released from the vent along with the steam. Most of the hot springs in town have measurable Arsenic content. This is simply pressure-washed off, and the slurry stored in open pits for evaporation. After this process has been repeated a sufficient number of times the pit is covered over and the walls raised. They used to put it in drums and bury them in a field on one of the roads out of town but the drums started leaking and cows were being born with two heads and that sort of thing, so they "cleaned it up". Oh, sorry, THEY didn't clean it up, we did. It was a superfund site; we still have one of those operating in town, for similar compounds. The "solution" was to dig it all up, put in a rubber liner, and bury it again.

There are other types of geothermal power options, like heat pipes, but all you have to know about them is that they are terribly inefficient (not that any geothermal plant in the world is producing any amazing amount of power) and they don't last, just like the turbine blades in our example. You're always digging things up and replacing them, which is terribly impractical. The simple truth is that solar panels could repay the energy cost of production in under seven years back in the 1970s and if all the money spent on geothermal plants was spent on even PV solar plants we would have produced a lot more power for the same amount of money.

Anyone promoting Geothermal power for low environmental impact is either ignorant or trolling.

About time!

[migla]

There are far too many women driving around in Nevada!

Saudi Arabia?

[denzacar]

How much is that in sensible scientific measurements like Libraries of Congress or Football Fields per Square Barleycorn?

Re:Geothermal

[ArbitraryDescriptor]

Geothermal isn't really that renewable!

Once we suck all the heat out of the Earth's core, the mantle will solidify: fusing all the tectonic plates and ending earthquakes and volcanoes once and for all.

Win/win.

Re:Yellowstone Caldera?

[nephilimsd]

Actually, as a resident of Reno (it's not as bad as it sounds.. really) I can definitively say that there is more geothermal energy over a wider area here than in Yellowstone. My understanding is that Yellowstone has a very strong, but very locialized pocket of usable energy, whereas the entire greater Carson-Reno area is tappable for energy. There have been quite a few apartment complexes and neighborhood groups who have pitched together to fund geothermal wells in this area, and effectively end up paying about 15k as a one-time cost to eliminate an electric bill for life (well, the life of the well, anyway). Best part is, because more energy is generated than can reasonably be used by 15-20 houses, the rest gets sold back to the electric company, and NV Energy takes care of maintenance on the well in exchange.

Re:Geothermal

[Dunbal]

Once we suck all the heat out of the Earth's core, the mantle will solidify: fusing all the tectonic plates and ending earthquakes and volcanoes once and for all.

Win/win.

      Assuming that were possible (don't worry, it's not), you end up losing the dynamo effect of a liquid mantle, the Earth's magnetic field vanishes, and the solar wind blows the atmosphere off into space. Yeah, really win.

      Nerd card revoked.

Re:Geothermal

[ArbitraryDescriptor]

Oh, you misunderstood. I was speaking on behalf of the Earth.
Win 1: No more painful earthquakes and embarrassing volcanoes.
Win 2: No more disgusting fungi and parasites mucking about on the surface.

Well, that settles it

[DesScorp]

"Sharron Angle is fucking crazy. [huffingtonpost.com]"

Well, if the HuffPuff said it, then I'm sold.

BTW, if you think Sharon Angle is crazy for wanting to eliminate several departments in the Federal government, and phase out Social Security as it currently exists, then you're going to be mighty shocked at how many crazy people there are.

Re:If the Yellowstone Caldera goes...

[Mordok-DestroyerOfWo]

The last eruption of the Yellowstone caldera 640,000 years ago

Wow, I saw you had a low ID, but I never realized they went back that far!