By: Lisa Kuscu
(208-251-2134) Email: lisa@warnermountainenergy.com and Curtis Rose (775-527-3345) Email: curt@warnermountainenergy.com, of Warner Mountain Energy Corporation
Pacific Gas and Electric’s sweeping energy blackout
affecting more than 2 million people has Warner Mountain Energy Corporation, a
Cedarville, CA renewable energy development company, thinking “we have distributed
energy resource opportunities in Modoc County’s backyard, let’s put it to use. Distributed energy resources are the solution
to California’s blackouts”. Distributed energy
generation is when electricity is generated from sources near the point of use
instead of from centralized large-scale power plants.
California’s vast electricity blackouts should be a wake-up
call for all of Californian’s to use the renewable resources we have at our
disposal. Geothermal is one of these
resources so abundant in the state and is available 24/7. Warner Mountain Energy’s recent geothermal
exploration drilling just revealed that “drilling for geothermal in Modoc
County is like drilling into a geothermal ocean” according to Richard Holt,
Reservoir Engineer.
What is reliable energy worth to us? Ask someone who is dependent on insulin. Ask someone who can’t get to work because
their car is out of fuel and the pumps are shut down. Ask a local business who is losing
significant revenue who is shut down.
Distributed energy generation is playing an increasingly
important role in the nation’s energy portfolio by supplementing centralized
power facilities. Localized energy
sources can help with baseload power, peaking power, energy security,
resiliency and more.
It can come online faster and less expensively because it does not need
large-scale transmission upgrades.
Project sign for California Energy Commission Geothermal Distributed Energy Resource project. |
U.S. Department of Energy, California Energy Commission, and
Modoc County are launching initiatives to do exactly this. It takes everyone working together, including
private companies like Warner Mountain Energy, to make this happen. The California Energy Commission has funded a demonstration project on Warner Mountain Energy site in the Surprise Valley in
Cedarville, Modoc County.
“This California power disruption should serve as a focusing
event for the state to invest in local renewable energy sources, like the
state’s abundant geothermal, that would turn neighborhoods into small
microgrids that will offer energy security” said Chester Robertson, Modoc
County Administrative Officer.