A critical area for cooperative effort will be finding a way to prop up geothermal development at the Salton Sea as a necessary part of the state’s 33 percent renewable energy mandate, which California utilities have mostly filled with cheaper solar and wind projects.
Geothermal developers have argued that their power, available 24/7 and easier to integrate into the grid than intermittent wind and solar, has not been properly valued. Efforts are now underway in the Legislature to propose a carve-out for geothermal in the state’s renewable energy planning and procurement process as part of the state’s contribution to restoration efforts at the sea, Stills said.
Bob Sullivan, vice president for geothermal developer Ormat Technologies, noted that several states already have solar carve-outs. With an untapped geothermal potential estimated at more than 2,000 megawatts, the Salton Sea is “the Saudi Arabia of geothermal,” he said. “
“Having a cool initiative like this, it combines energy integration with an indigenous resource,” he said. “The more geothermal you procure, the more renewables you can bring onto the grid.”
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