FYI, Geothermal Industry: You’re Doing It Wrong (Renewable Energy World)
As the geothermal industry limps along year after year, a utility insider strongly suggests that it changes its tactics.
For years the geothermal industry has relentlessly boasted that it is a baseload resource, meaning it provides stable power similar to a coal or natural gas plant, except without all of those pesky carbon emissions. While upfront costs to develop a plant are higher than other renewable sources, geothermal leaders say that this baseload aspect makes it a more attractive resource in the long run since the grid needs more stable power as increasing amounts of intermittent renewables enter the landscape.
Though this may sound like bankable reasoning, Dave Olsen of the California Independent System Operator Corporation (CAISO) said geothermal needs to change its strategy to make any sort of progress in the energy market. During the opening session of the 2014
Geothermal Resources Council (GRC) Annual Meeting in Portland, Oregon, Olsen warned the crowded room that they might not like what he had to say.
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