USA, Reno, Nevada:

Geothermal Energy in Nevada: Ready to Take Off? (KTVN Channel 2 news)

Northern Nevada is a hotspot for thermal energy, and today (Monday), over 2,000 came to the Peppermill for the Geothermal Resources Council Annual Meeting. Listening to the speakers we found college student Aaron Ochsner. Why did he fly out from the University of South Dakota? He calls geothermal a future career of limitless possibilities: "Just for the United States to gain its own energy independence, I guess that really interested me."

For Ormat's Paul Thomsen, it's a gift: deep earth heat mixing with underground water to produce steam…24/7 free energy lying right under our feet. He told us, "We're thrilled to have everybody here in Reno, which is really the center for geothermal development."

You can see it on cooler days, the steam rising from the ground. It was Harry Reid who first called us, 'the Saudi Arabia of thermal energy.' To use thermal energy, you need fractures and a liquid medium like water. We have both here at the Ormat plant in south Reno. As Thomsen describes it, "You know the basin and range that formed beautiful Lake Tahoe brings a lot of heat close to the surface."

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