Saturday, April 7, 2007

Advisory council visits geothermal site in Nevada

From the Lahontan Valley (Nevada) News...
Two dozen landowners in the area receive royalties for having the geothermal plant resources snake on or below their properties.

"Members of an advisory committee to the Bureau of Land Management toured sites in Churchill County on Thursday to gain further understanding of how public lands and resources are managed in Nevada.

The 15-member Resource Advisory Council, comprised of academic, business and public representatives, drove from Carson City and visited the Stillwater Geothermal Plant ....

At the Stillwater Geothermal Plant, the group first visited an injection well, which pumps cooled geothermal water back into the ground. Brad Pratt, representative from Enel North America, explained to the group the details of the production wells, the amount of power generated from them and the reasons behind the placement of injection wells.

The production well at Stillwater Geothermal, first drilled in 1988, cost about $1.3 million - a figure which is doubled these days, Pratt said. Two dozen landowners in the area receive royalties for having the geothermal plant resources snake on or below their properties.

The geothermal plant uses about 25 percent of the power it generates and sells the remainder to Sierra Pacific Power Company.

Enel North America, which purchased the geothermal plant from Ormat, plans to build new plants next year at Salt Wells and on 240 acres adjacent to the existing plant in Stillwater...."

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