I’d be curious to know what some of Planet Gore’s engineering readers think of this CNN item celebrating geothermal:
(CNN) — Hidden under a quaint resort 60 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, lies a treasure trove of potential energy that’s free and available 24/7.
Alaskan entrepreneur Bernie Karl has pioneered modern technology to tap into one of Earth’s oldest energy resources: hot water.
Karl, 56, likes to call himself an “imagineer.”
Using imagination to fuel his engineering ambitions, this tenacious thinker and self-starter has figured out a way to generate electricity using water that’s the temperature of a cup of coffee — about 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
“There’s more opportunity now than there has ever been in the history of man, but we have to reinvent ourselves,” Karl said.
Karl was determined to reinvent the way he consumed energy after he and his wife, Connie, purchased the Chena Hot Springs Resort from the state of Alaska in 1998.
“After we purchased the hot spring, I couldn’t believe it, the swimming pool and the hot spring were being heated by diesel fuel, 1,000 gallons every month!” Karl said.
To slash costs and to use resources that were right under his nose, Karl invented a portable geothermal power plant.
In a little more than three years, Karl and his wife have severed the facility’s dependence on diesel fuel and have saved $625,000, he said.
He says he’s partnered with the Department of Energy to fund half of a $1.4 million exploration project to find and characterize the geothermal resources at Chena Hot Springs, he said.
“It’s a model for what you can do,” said Karl.
And . . .
“Chena Hot Springs is home to the lowest-temperature geothermal resource to be used for commercial power production in the world,” Karl said.
“Oil companies don’t drill wells for water, but they have some 5,000 kilowatts of geothermal power at their disposal in unused oil wells. Let’s pick the low-hanging fruit and use the wells we have for oil for geothermal power,” he said.
Citing a 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, Karl said harnessing just 2 percent of Earth’s internal energy could provide 2,000 times more energy than the entire planet currently consumes — all free of polluting greenhouse gas emissions.
“Everything goes back, there is no pollution, no smokestack,” he said. “We are going to go recycle oil wells and recycle water and put it back in the ground.”