Oregon Institute of Technology says it is on the way to becoming the
first college campus in the world to have all its energy needs supplied
by geothermal systems.
The school has begun drilling on its Klamath Falls, Ore.,
campus to create a geothermal system that will generate enough power to
supply all the institute's electrical needs.
"We will then be an all 'green' energy campus," the
institute's Geo-Heat Center stated in a project update earlier this
month.
OIT embraced geothermal power long ago; since the early
1960s, when it moved to its current campus, three geothermal wells have
generated the energy to provide all the heating and domestic hot water
needs on campus. According to an environmental assessment of the new
geothermal project prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy, the older
wells have for 45 years generated energy that provides heat and hot
water to about 764,000 square feet of space in 12 buildings.
The school estimates that the geothermal system has saved
it $1 million a year in energy costs.
For the additional geothermal system, OIT has begun
drilling a well in a campus parking lot. A seismic survey determined
that the optimum drilling target would be 3,000 to 4,000 feet deep.
Researchers have predicted that geothermal fluids in the well will have
a temperature of about 300 degrees Fahrenheit. The school hopes the well
will produce up to 1,500 gallons per minute of hot fluid to supply a
1.5-megawatt to 3.0-megawatt power plant, "depending upon the
temperature and flow rate of the fluid," the project update states.
The center expects that the new geothermal well would save
the campus about $500,000 a year in electricity costs; in addition, the
power plant is expected to produce excess energy that OIT could sell.
The well and a 1.5 megawatt power plant would cost about $9 million;
with a 3.0-megawatt plant, the cost would be about $14 million.
"Once the well is completed and tested, and we know the
temperature, flow rate and mineral content, the power plant will be
designed," the project update says. "This should take approximately six
months to a year....The plant will be ordered and on site sometime in
late 2009 or early 2010."
The school says the power plants will be available to the
public for tours, and students in OIT's Renewable Energy Program will be
able to use the plants for class projects.
To read more about Oregon Institute of Technology's
geothermal projects, click
here.
--by Mike Kennedy
