04/05/07 US Geothermal

Construction started last June and should be completed late this summer on US Geothermal's 40 million dollar Raft River Power plant. US Geothermal's Doug Glaspey says they'll use two liquids, a binary cycle to produce enough electricity for eight to ten thousand homes. The Boise based company has a six thousand foot deep well to bring 300 degree water to the surface. GLASPEY "Pass it through a heat exchanger. We extract about half of the heat so if it comes in at 300 degrees it goes out of our power plant at about 150 degrees Fahrenheit. But we have a second fluid on the other side of the heat exchanger called isopentane which flashes to a higher pressure steam and that is what is actually used to turn a turbine, to turn a generator and produce electricity." The cooled water is pumped back into the earth where it's reheated and will be used again and again. Power plant equipment should be arriving this month at the Cassia County site but it's only the beginning. Idaho Power wants to add 45 megawatts of geothermal power but Raft River only provides ten megawatts. Two more phases added there could provide another ten but there's a potential 26 megawatts in eastern Oregon near Vale. More about that project tomorrow. Voice of Idaho Agriculture Bill Scott