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Geothermal Steam Touted to Produce Power in Idaho by Bob Fick, Associated Press The Idaho Statesman, June 1, 2001

Southern Idaho is sitting atop some of the largest reserves of geothermal energy in the nation, and experts say tapping that resource could take a significant bite out of escalating power bills.

"We need to take a fresh look at this," Roy Mink of the Idaho Water Resources Research Institute said. "We have new technologies now. ... Then we need to follow up, using this resource."

Idaho has a long history of using the hot water running below the Snake River Plain. The geothermal heating district for Boise's Warm Springs neighborhood is the oldest in the nation, dating from 1892. And the Idaho Capitol is the only one in America with geothermal heating.

The last survey in 1994 estimated there were 1,500 hot springs or geothermal wells across the state. They are heating hundreds of homes, businesses and public buildings, saving the equivalent of 204,000 barrels of oil a year.

The hot water also has fostered a fish-farming industry that produces 2.2 million pounds a year.

Ken Neely of the Idaho Energy Division estimated that the geothermal heating systems in Boise and at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls save more than $1.1 million a year, compared with heating with fossil fuels.

At at a Boise State University seminar Thursday on the potential for geothermal power, experts said Idaho's use to date has barely scratched the surface.

Skyrocketing electric prices and soaring natural gas costs could be about to change that.

"With all this expensive power, that makes this a lot more attractive than it was just last year," Bob Hoppie of the Idaho Energy Division said.

Traditional power that was costing 4 or 5 cents a kilowatt hour two years ago is running 30 or 40 cents today, while a kilowatt of geothermal power costs about 7 cents to generate.

"The only thing keeping us from developing it is more investment," Hoppie said.

Mink said there were more than two dozen geothermal sites in southern Idaho that produce water at temperatures from 250 degrees to 360 degrees that could be suitable for generating steam to drive electricity-producing turbines. A pilot five-megawatt generating system installed in the Raft River area of southeastern Idaho 20 years ago worked.

Sites with real potential for generating electricity include Big Creek in central Idaho, Crane Creek near Weiser, Vulcan Hot Springs in central Idaho and Magic Reservoir south of Sun Valley. Experts said they offer real possibilities because they are near the existing power grid.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Energy Secretary Robert Dixon said the Bush administration is committed to expanding the use of geothermal power, including easing restrictions on access to federal lands where much of that resource is located.

But Dixon said it will take time and commitment from state and local governments to maximize use of geothermal reserves.

"Idaho is one of the leading states in terms of the resource," he said. "I'd like to come back to Idaho in a year or two or three and see Idaho step up ... (and) develop those resources."