Utah Governor meets with Raser Technologies

Governor Huntsman discusses geothermal energy and the states renewable energy plan

Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. met with Raser Technologies at their headquarters in Provo, UT to discuss Utah’s new leadership energy role in geothermal development.

“First, just as Wall Street is known for finance and Silicone Valley for technology, by 2012, I believe Utah can become the premier destination in America for renewable energy!

And don't tell me it can't be done! In just this past year alone, we have witnessed in Utah the opening of a solar farm, a hydroelectric plant, a wind farm and a geothermal plant. To support this energy development, innovation at our higher education campuses is running at an all-time high, like technologies that will ensure the long-term viability of our abundant natural resources. The University of Utah is now second only to MIT in commercialization of cutting-edge research.”

-Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr. at the State of the State Address

Senator Huntsman met with Raser’s CEO Brent Cook, Executive Vice President Dick Clayton, Senior Vice President David West and other Raser representatives. They discuss the recent discovery of one of the largest reservoir of geothermal energy in the nation and Raser’s development of this resource and its impact of this on the State of Utah’s energy plan.

Salt Lake mayor eyes geothermal power

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Mayor Ralph Becker has enlisted a geothermal power company to rate Salt Lake City's potential for generating renewable energy from heat stored in the earth.

One possible site is the Wasatch Warm Springs fault zone on the city's north end. But Raser Technologies Inc. says there are other hidden geothermal sites around the city.

Becker is pitching a geothermal plant as part of his wish list of projects for possible funding under President-elect Barack Obama's proposed economic stimulus package.

The Wasatch Warm Springs fluctuate between 100 and 108 degrees at the surface. That's not hot enough for technology that can extract energy from water at coffee-brewing temperature, or 165 degrees, but Raser says the water could be hotter deeper underground.)

Full steam for local geothermal firm

A Provo company is showing the rest of America how to develop new sources of energy: Unleash private companies and let them uncover the wealth lying beneath our feet.

After the discovery of a huge geothermal field 155 miles southwest of Provo, Raser Technologies Inc. has taken only about six months to construct a power plant and get it going. That's because it has figured out how to build plants in a modular fashion, making the process easier and faster. The company has said it will begin delivering electricity to Anaheim, Calif., within weeks.

The power source is hot water a few thousand feet below the surface, circulating inside a zone of porous limestone. The underground "lake" cycles hot water, using the Earth's internal heat to drive turbines. Raser plans to tap it and provide power eventually to as many 200,000 homes.

Raser started buying leases five years ago on hundreds of thousands of acres that had been passed over because of their lower heat potential. Raser, however, has developed a fluid that allows it to use low-temperature water. And, unlike most geothermal plants, in the Raser plant the water can be re-used.

The company holds rights to 78 square miles of land and believes there's potential for further development. Raser and its supplier, UTC Power, plan to build seven geothermal energy plants this year and 10 plants a year for the following decade.

It's a testimony to the power of private business, correctly managed. It's been a bad year for the reputation of many big firms. But that shouldn't obscure the power of free enterprise to get things done.

There's a clamor on the left for government to run more of the economy. But it's hard to imagine a government agency getting such a project done in six years, much less six months.

The company's find underscores the power of taking risks. In the current climate, businesses have (unsurprisingly) grown skittish of sticking their necks out. Raser's success in this venture reminds us that boldness can pay off.

The company has ramped up its planned development from 10 megawatts to 230 megawatts. And the future looks bright: It has applied to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange and expects to begin trading on the Big Board early this year.

The moral of the story? While politicians in Washington are talking about developing more energy resources, private companies are actually doing things. They're developing fresh ideas, working on new technologies, and taking risks as they work toward the future.

And this is just one example. Other companies are taking big strides in developing energy resources, from making solar power viable to developing nuclear power plants the size of a hot tub.

To do such things, however, they have to be free of burdensome taxation and cumbersome regulations. They take big risks, and people won't do that unless they also have a chance of a big payoff.

There's a lot of justified anger over the blunders business has made in recent years. But, as Raser has shown, free enterprise can provide tremendous benefits.

If we let it.

3 Companies Stay on Alternative-Energy Path

By Paul Davidson, USA TODAY

President-elect Barack Obama has made renewable energy a centerpiece of his plan to resuscitate the U.S. economy and fight global warming.

Yet the credit crunch and nose-diving energy prices are prompting companies to scale back or cancel alternative-energy projects. In 2008, total spending on clean-energy projects is expected to fall 4% to $142 billion from 2007, research firm New Energy Finance says. But venture capital and private-equity firms are still investing in emerging technologies, it says. This year, such investments will increase to $14.2 billion from $9.8 billion in 2007.

Here are three companies that are forging ahead:

GEOTHERMAL POWER

Raser Technologies' hot idea

Geothermal power, which generates electricity by tapping a virtually limitless reserve of the Earth's natural heat, is perhaps the most promising renewable energy. But the richest and most accessible resources are dwindling, and it typically takes five to 10 years to build a plant.

Start-up Raser Technologies aims to solve both problems.

Its modular design makes building a geothermal plant as simple and quick as putting up a house. And it can use cooler, more widely available water, which increases the number of potential sites.

The company recently completed a 10-megawatt geothermal plant — enough to power about 9,000 homes — in six months. By year's end, it plans to start selling electricity from the Thermo, Utah, facility to the city of Anaheim, Calif.

Raser and its supplier, UTC Power, want to build another seven generators in the western United States by the end of 2009. It says they can churn out a jaw-dropping eight to 10 plants a year for at least the next decade.

"I call it Lego … building-block style," says Raser CEO Brent Cook.

Geothermal makes up 3% of the nation's renewable energy, according to the Geothermal Energy Association. Geothermal, unlike wind and solar, makes power around the clock.

Developers typically drill for water that's at least 350 degrees Fahrenheit; most is in the West. As it's pumped from the ground, the hot water turns to steam, which cranks a turbine.

A relatively new binary process uses cooler water — 250 to 300 degrees — to heat a refrigerant that vaporizes at lower temperatures. UTC Power says it can tap water as tepid as 165 degrees. "There are a lot more low- and moderate-temperature resources than higher-temperature resources," says Joseph Moore of the Energy & Geoscience Institute at the University of Utah.

Raser and UTC executives realized they could streamline the process by simply using air conditioners. For the Utah plant, UTC combined off-the-shelf air conditioners from its Carrier division, the nation's top air conditioning supplier, with generators and turbines to mass produce 50 units. In the meantime, Raser drilled wells, laid the foundation and installed wiring at the Utah site.

Then UTC delivered 50 systems in just 10 days.

"I've seen projects studied to death," Cook says. "This gave us the business courage to say, 'Let's go ahead and do this project.' "

SOLAR SYSTEMS

Making solar affordable

Here's a way to bring down the cost of that $35,000 solar system you're thinking of putting on the roof of your house: Turn the solar system into your roof.

Installation fees now make up about 30% of the price of solar panels. Panels, after all, must be individually mounted with racks and frames. Letting them double as roof tiles or building facades can eliminate those fees.

For 10 years, about a dozen companies have been laminating or gluing panels directly onto the roofs of homes or businesses as they're built. Sometimes solar cells are embedded within glass facades of office buildings.

Yet this segment of the solar business — known as building-integrated photovoltaics (BIPV) — makes up less than 5% of the industry, partly because systems are pricey, says consultant Paul Maycock of Photovoltaic Energy Systems.

A start-up called HelioVolt aims to jump-start the market with a less costly BIPV system for homes that it says is also more aesthetically appealing. It plans to start churning out panels for roofs and facades at its Austin factory by the end of 2009.

"My vision is to change solar from being a retrofit to being an electronic component embedded in the building construction material," Helio CEO B.J. Stanbery says.

BIPV providers that target the home market typically use wafers made of expensive silicon as a semiconductor. Individual solar cells must be electronically linked to form modules as large as 36 square feet. The links create grid-like lines on solar panels.

When a manufacturer builds a smaller module that doubles as a roof tile, it reduces efficiency and increases cost.

HelioVolt, by contrast, is a thin-film solar maker that uses a fraction of the semiconductor found in silicon wafers, slicing costs.

Also, Stanbery says the company creates electronic connections within each solar cell, eliminating the need to combine cells into large modules. As a result, he says, it can build smaller panels that naturally function as roof tiles and are 40% cheaper than current BIPV models.

And since the electronic links are deeply ingrained within the panels, the lines are virtually invisible, lending the panels a more natural solid gray look.

"You have no idea how many people I've talked to where the guy wants to put … panels on the roof, and the wife says, 'You've got to be kidding. You know how ugly those things are?' " Stanbery says.

WIND ENERGY

Design maximizes gusts

More wind, more electricity. Right?

Wrong.

A big drawback of wind energy is that generators operate at a steady speed regardless of how hard the wind blows. That means energy is wasted when gusts are too weak or too strong.

A Vancouver, British Columbia-based start-up called ExRo says it has a solution. It has invented a variable-speed generator that fluctuates with the wind. ExRo CEO John McDonald says the new generator can boost power output 20% to 50%, slashing electric rates.

"Alternative energy is still far too expensive," McDonald says. "What we're attempting to do is materially reduce the cost per kilowatt hour."

Wind makes up about 1% of U.S. power generation and has been growing about 45% a year.

Here's how a wind turbine works: Wind turns the blades, which spin a shaft. The shaft rotates copper coils that generate electric current when they pass by magnets. But the coils and magnets run at a set speed. So if wind speeds are too low, a gearbox must use power from the turbine to spin the shaft faster, wasting electricity. Similarly, the generator can't handle strong winds that would make the shaft spin too rapidly. So blades are positioned to let much of those gusts pass by.

ExRo Chief Technology Officer Jonathan Ritchey has devised a generator with 54 coils and magnets that work independently. If the wind is weak, only a couple of coils rotate. If it's strong, they all kick in.

The company has raised $1.5 million in seed money and is seeking $10 million next year for field trials. McDonald expects to team with manufacturers and start turning out generators in 2010. "No matter what the wind does, we have the right size generator at peak efficiency," he says.

KSL on Renewable Energy in Utah

KSL Television, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 17th, 2008
The move toward renewable sources of energy is more than just talk in Utah . . . and that is encouraging, as the state, nation and world transition to power generation that is more environmentally friendly.

The latest example is the recent completion of an innovative geothermal power plant in Beaver County. Provo-based Raser Technologies, remarkably, built the facility in just over six-months using advanced modular technology they say "can make geothermal a major price-competitive resource for this country's energy supply."


A few months ago, another group of entrepreneurs flipped the switch to begin generating electricity at a wind farm in the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. The nine-turbine, 19-megawatt facility is the first utility-scale wind project in Utah history.

KSL applauds these innovative approaches to providing energy that is greener and cleaner. In our view, the initial success of these two projects reinforces the viability of Governor Huntsman's goal of having the state get 20 percent of its energy needs from renewable sources by 2025.

Utah is a state with vast natural resources, including four major geothermal zones, a number of potential wind-power sites and an abundance of sunshine in key areas for solar power generation. The move to development of these resources is both encouraging and exciting.