CalEnergy Vice President Mark Gran introduces the company’s 340 megawatt geothermal plant on the southern shore of the Salton Sea. The plant produces enough energy to power around 300,000 homes. The Imperial Valley has the potential to produce a stunning 2300 megawatts of this renewable resource. Thats enough energy to power more than 2 million homes. One major challenge is building transmission lines to deliver that energy to the large, urban areas that need it.
As he points out in the video, geothermal produces power 24/7, so there are no fluctuations as with wind and solar.
There lay the problem with our energy mentality in its entirety: transmission. Production of energy elsewhere for distribution upon delivery. Like eating food grown in Arizona, it’s a bad habit in need of breaking. Size is impressive, but every major scheme out there involves some big ‘energy’ corporation ‘producing’ energy elsewhere for distribution upon purchase.
No knock on geothermal, I’ve both quite a bit of exploratory going on in my backyard and an interest since a visit to Iceland in my ‘traveling days’. Just reiterating the problem.