Existing U.S. Energy Generation Base

Video: Intro to Enhanced Geothermal Systems

The energy from the heat beneath the earth's surface is essentially an unlimited resource. What if it could be developed to help solve our energy challenges and fight global warming? Enhanced Geothermal Systems, or EGS, attempts to do just that. EGS produces heat and electricity by harnessing the energy from hot rock deep below the earth's surface, expanding the potential of traditional geothermal energy by orders of magnitude. EGS is a big challenge, but with the potential to power the world many times over, it demands our immediate attention. At Google we've launched an effort to advance EGS through R&D, investment, policy and information.

--Google

3D Model and Animation of the Cooper Basin EGS Projec

Video: An animation of the 50 MW Habanero EGS system, under development in Australia's Cooper Basin. The 3-D models featured are available for download below and can be viewed in Google SketchUp:

Temperature at 4.5 km

Found some data about how deep we need to drill to make steam.

Temperature at 3.5 km

Geothermal Aquaculture in Idaho

Geothermal aquaculture is big business in Idaho. Catfish, tilapia, ornamental fish, coral, aquatic plants, and alligators are all being raised in the state thanks to our geothermal water, which is perfectly suited for these life forms. People have been using this natural hot water in Idaho since 1973 for aquaculture businesses and research. The map below shows the locations of geothermal aquaculture establishments currently in operation.

Fish and Alligators for Eating

Leo Ray was probably the first person in Idaho to put geothermal water to work for raising aquatic life. Mr. Ray's business, Fish Breeders of Idaho, is located near the Snake River in the Hagerman Valley of Twin Falls County. Catfish, tilapia, and alligators are raised in 95° F water. Tilapia is the most commonly raised fish in Idaho's geotehrmal waters. Geothermal water is an excellent environment for the alligators of southern Idaho. Mr. Ray's alligators serve multiple purposes. In addition to being edible, they help with waste management by consuming cull fish from Ray's other acquaculture opertions. The hides are also cured and processed into leather products such as boots, vests, and purses.



Nine of the 13 geothermal aquaculture businesses raise tilapia, making it the most commonly grown fish in Idaho using warm water. However, the tilapia industry has faced some challenges. In the U.S., tilapia producers had to make changes in marketing practices when the cost of producing fillets ceased to be competitive with oversea producers. Bob Williams, owner of Arraina Inc. and Ace Development, has created a lucrative aquaculture oasis in the Owyhee desert that is successful because of creative marketing. The company delivers live tilapia to Vancouver, British Columbia, where the large Asian population prefers to buy live seafood. Additional markets in large west coast cities such as Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco have been developed for Idaho's live tilapia product.

Ornamentals and Aquatic Plants

Six places in Idaho use geothermal water for raising ornamental aquaculture products. In south-central Idaho, angel fish are grown for tropical fish tanks. Goldfish are being raised in Caribou County and ornamentals in Twin Falls and Owyhee Counties. In Ada County, Flora Company raises koi and shobukin in a cascading application that is downstream from their geothermal greenhouses. Also in Ada County, the Geothermal Aquaculture Research Foundation (GARF) raises a collection of aquatic plants, fish, and reef animals and products. One of GARF's goals is to stimulate interest in, appreciation for, and an understanding of these marine organisms.

In addition to fish and reef colonies, GARF raises a variety of aquatic plants. One would never know passing by this home that, nestled in the back, is this magnificent wetlands project. The project was started 20 years ago, and consists of valuable aquatic plants collected from around the world to enhance the study of algae control plants and the balance of nature. All of these plants thrive and reproduce rapidly due to the continued availability of geothermal water in the Boise Warm Springs Water District.

Source:http://www.energy.idaho.gov/alternative_fuels/geothermal/aquaculture.htm

Cost to Drill a Well

According to Calpines literature, It cost 2-3 million to drill a well. They totally outsource this part of the job to a company like ThermaSource. To put things in perspective, The town of Windsor has population of 25,000 people. The town spends about $5,000,000 per year on public safety. This is 20% of the entire budget, Which translates to about $200 per year, per person. About $16 per month. In 2005 there were 87 violent crime incidents.(source:http://safety.fizber.com/California/Windsor/) This translates to 1 violent crime every 4 days. This also means that 1 out of 287 Windsor residents was violent at least once per year.

Here are some more numbers to think about:
CalPine The Geysers Project
Cost to drill one well: $3 Million
Number of active wells: 350
Calpine Anual Energy Production: 30,000 megawatts
Cost to build Power Plant:???
Number of people needed to operate power plant: 1

Google invested $10 Million in Geo Thermal

In a nutshell Google
invested $10 Million in Geo Thermal.
http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/google-to-invest-in-geothermal/

To me, this confirms that Google's legions of innovative PHDs are
steering Google in the same direction I think we should investigate. I
wonder if Windsor can position it self to be plausible place for
Google to investment. Some companies are created for the sole purpose
of being bought by Google. Can we get Google to pay attention?

Given Sonoma State University's proximity to California's premier
place for Geo Thermal activity, I think that this region can lead the
rest of the country in sustainable energy adoption, if SSU produces
Geo Thermal engineering talent. Perhaps their green building programs
will expand over the next few years to include green power design.
This area is flooded with professionals who have been involved with
local Geo Thermal industry related to the 17 Geo Thermal power plants
within the 40 mile radius.

The Geysers

Do you know about The Geysers?
See Map: http://www.geysers.com/img/Geysers_Map.jpg

The Geysers (own by Calpine Corp) is one of the most reliable energy sources in California delivering extremely high availability and on-line performance and accounts for one-fourth of the green power produced in California.

I think it’s fair to say that in 2004 Sonoma county powered one fourth of the 6th largest economy in the world. It could very well be that electricity is Sonoma County’s biggest export.

Why is this relevant?
We can make hydrogen cheaply.
We can use cheap hydrogen to fuel cars, buses, trains and motorcycles.
We can be in control of our electricity prices.
We can be self reliant by having our own local grid.
We can energize power hungry technology.
We can sell surplus energy to neighboring counties and use proceeds to enhance community programs.

We are wealthy. All we have to do is look down.

Calpine corporation understands this, which is why they had nearly $8 Billion in revenue last year. The year before that it was about $7Billion. Between 2006 and 2007 their revenue grew by 16%.
Source:http://finance.google.com/finance?client=ob&q=NYSE:CPN

To get the scope of how much $8 Billion is, here is an article on Sonoma County Wine Industry that has an $8 Billion impact.
http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2005/05/23/daily30.html

I am excited about our energy potential, if you want to have a conversation about this, get in touch with me arsen yeremin at gmail com

References:
http://www.lao.ca.gov/2004/cal_facts/2004_calfacts_econ.htm
http://www.geysers.com/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgGlE97rJl4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRAQrDduaU0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfUQy86ZMpQ
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6641103737354173076&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3753378027366882455&hl=en
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=284642880869092090&vt=lf&hl=en
http://www.ecogeek.org/content/view/990/
http://www.hydrogentrain.eu/
http://www.hydrail.org/
http://www.hydrail.org/hydrail.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norsk_Hydro
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calpine_Corporation

Algae Bio-Fuels

Maker Faire

The Maker Faire is in a few days. Hope to see some North Bay projects there.

Brammo

This motorcycle was being demoed at a Venture Capital Event in Santa Rosa. Brammo is based in Ashland Oregon and are looking for up to 15 million in funding. The bikes are sold for around $12k. Though I could not ride it due to time constrains and liability. The bike appeared to be solidly made. It's my understanding that the bikes will be manufactured in Oregon if the cost of assembly is less than the cost of shipping from china.

Top Speed: 50mph
Range: 45 miles
Charge Time: 3 hours

Sustainable Conference

Friday, May 2
Sonoma Mountain Village, Rohnert Park, CA

-Understand sustainability and the challenges and opportunities it presents.
-Discuss environmental impacts and ways in which enterprises can reduce their impact.
-Offer tools that are strategic and practical - from generating a vision of a sustainable enterprise, to optimizing resource management, to metrics systems for measuring progress.
-Develop frameworks for producing or reformulating products and services that are
environmentally and socially sound.
-Illustrate, through experiences or cases, the rewards and risks of sustainability initiatives as an entrepreneur or within a larger enterprise.
-Explore strategies for communicating and creating alignment among coworkers and colleagues.
-Network with other organizations and people to successfully implement innovative sustainable operating practices and policies.

http://sustainableenterpriseconference.com/

Zap Alias Prototype

I saw the prototype chassis at ZAP HP in Santa Rosa. I understand the prototype is drivable, but test drives are not open to the public yet. You can put down a $5k deposit for when it comes out in 2009 for around $30k.

Several years ago I spoke with one of Zaps Execs as he were demoing
The Smart Car

inside Costco. He said that there was government regulation resistance to have these cars imported to America. I may be wrong, but this issue seems to be side stepped by simply importing the parts and assembling them it in the United States. This is what appears to be what will enable Zap to get these cars out the door sooner rather than later.

One thing to be said about Smart Cars is that I was not impressed by the demo I saw several years back. Although I applaud the engine being made by BMW the rest of the car was the quality of Saturn. I owned both both brands and will never buy one of them again. I understand that zap was not responsible for designing the product and I still applaud them for trying to give us something that gets 60+ MPG long before the Prius left the drawing board.

This time ZAP has the opportunity to do it right. Please, please don't skip on quality of the interior, convenience of controls on the steering wheel, sound insulation from outside noise, quality and functionality of plastic switches, sturdiness of all moving parts, and of course a good sound system with auxiliary input.

If ZAP does it right, at $30k people will be lining up to get one. If the quality is there I will be the first in line. I guess for now the only other cool option is Tesla for $100k. I am going to have to hold off, at least until ZAP releases their Allias.

Wi-Fi in Sebastopol, CA, USA

Two days ago while I was talking to someone at Windsor Chamber of Commerce, a remark was made about people in Sebastopol being stupid. It's unfortunate that such statements are made because some Sebastopol residents are outraged about the city's decision to ban sonic.net Wi-Fi. I was walking down Sebastopol's Main Street while asking a friend what he thought about the city council's decision, when a stranger sitting on a bench jumped in to answer. "It is stupid" he said. "They are stupid; They don't understand that there is a signal already all around us" He pulled out his keys with a hot-spot detector attached to the chain showing us signal strength. We nodded our heads and kept on walking. My friend says "That about sums it up". I respect people decision not to want to be exposed to 2.4Ghz frequency as much as I respect people who are afraid of the dark. I really do. Phobias are very real to those experiencing them.

We have to remember that radio frequency is all around us.
Most lights emit 60Hz.
The earth itself emits around 3kHz -8kHz signal.
Our brain emits a frequency (600Hz).
Our heart beats on an electrical signal from our brain (1.17Hz).
The SETI project is receiving signals from space across a huge spectrum.

To me, free Wi-Fi represents free sharing of knowledge. If you ever go to Sebastopol, you will quickly realize that people here are all about sharing. Sharing housing, sharing food, sharing bikes, etc... It's a community of openness. Most are open minded (except when absolute dogmatic statements are made). Sebastopl is home to O'Reilly Media. The poster child of open source book publishing. Zap(Zero Air Polution), an Electric Car pioneer of our time was founded in Sebastopol. Intuit's Quickbooks was started there also.

While the decision to cut Sebastopol's free internet access does not affect me, (my phone has EVDO internet connection and Wi-Fi, so I bridge the connection to re-broadcast my own hotspot for others can connect to), majority of residents are the ones at a loss. I think this can be summed up in 2 statements. They are loosing their option to connect. They are perceived as uneducated fools.

I think it would be interesting if there was a ban on electricity. It would be an experiment we can learn from.

Solar Trailer

One of my friends is building a solar trailer. Very cool. I took the Alpha version of the product for a test drive. It's promising but still needs extensive refinement. His purpose is to ride across the United States while making a documentary on sustainable living. Right now the batteries last about 2 hours and the motor tops off at about 15 MPH. It would be cool if he could ride up to 10 hours per day on a single charge. This would allow him to cover 150 miles per day before having to recharge. I realize the extra weight will reduce the top speed and add to strain of the batteries.

Tesla

I saw 2 of these while driving through Mountain View. You never see these in the North Bay. I guess all the action is in Silicon Valley. The Tesla cost around $100k. If there was a dealership in Sonoma, I would definitely test drive one.

Ariel Atom

This car is the second fastest non-race car on the market after Bugatti. While Bugatti is going to start out around $800k, The Ariel Atom can be had for 80k.
http://www.arielatom.com/