The Peppermill in Reno will be the location for the 2015 GRC Annual Meeting
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| Dean Parker, Peppermill Executive Director of Facilities shows off the geothermal heated swimming pool to GRC Annual Meeting attendees in October 2012. |
One hotel in Reno, Nevada is not like the others, but not for the reasons you’d expect. Sure, the Peppermill Resort Spa Casino’s two 19-story towers are unique, as are the 2.1 million square foot (195,000 sqm) interior, 1,635 guest rooms, 43,000 square-foot (3,995 sqm) spa, Tuscan-themed decor and larger-than-life casinos, restaurants and nightclubs.
This difference is one you can’t see: how it’s heated. Water from a geothermal aquifer 4,400 feet (1.34 kilometers) underground powers the Peppermill’s massive heating and hot water systems, saving a cool $2 million annually versus its former, conventional power source, natural gas.
Since the Peppermill switched from natural gas for water and heating in 2010, its four behemoth natural gas boilers have sat idle. “They haven’t been turned on in the last three years,” says Dean Parker, Executive Director of Facilities and GRC member. Geothermal is so reliable that he plans to sell two of the boilers.
Parker’s team had also considered other alternative energy sources, but, he says, “Solar and wind power just didn’t pencil out.” Unlike those, geothermal is not dependent on above-ground conditions. “It’s just constant,” he says. “If the water is 174 degrees, it does not heat up to 175 degrees, and in the last three years it has not dropped even one degree either.”
Eventually, Parker hopes to drill deeper and hit a subterranean steam vent. Enough steam at 220° Fahrenheit (104.5° Celsius) could power an electric plant for all the Peppermill’s needs, enabling it to go off the power grid completely.
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