Geothermal Energy: The Ground's Not Getting Any Cooler

Looking around the internet, I found this article which gives a little blurb about a new geothermal project on a little island in the Caribbean. It will be capable of producing 8.5 MW of power. While that not might seem like a lot to us here in the US, that could provide a lot for a little 36 square mile island.

Aerial Shot of Nevis

From my earlier post on geothermal energy, one of the reasons that geothermal energy isn't expanded upon that was brought up by a reader was that geothermal can only be utilized at "hot spots" around the globe, which are places where high temperature geothermal resources are available near the surface. The island where the project is being planned, Nevis, is a little to the southeast of Puerto Rico. It is the dormant remnant of an ancient volcano, which is why it has a multitude of hot springs and why the geothermal project is being planned for it.

After looking up all of this info on Nevis, I started wondering if the US had any geothermal plants in Hawaii, where volcanic activity is very present resulting in a lot of geothermal potential. I then researched that and found that they do indeed have one geothermal plant on the big island that only produces energy for the big island. It produces about 20% of the island's energy needs, so it is very useful and helpful.

Hawaii's Geothermal Plant

While they are doing some things with geothermal energy, I feel like they could do a lot more in Hawaii. There has to be a lot more places where they can build geothermal plants around the different islands, instead of just having the one on the big island, but that's just ideal speculation. I remember reading at one point something about Hawaii wanting to go green and have a majority of their energy come from renewable sources, so I think geothermal can definitely help them reach their goal.

A Look Back At That Corny Fuel

With gas prices going up and looking like they won't be going down really anytime soon, a lot of people's wallets are going to be hit pretty hard at the gas pumps around the nation. In previous posts I have talked about a couple of remedies to high oil prices: electric cars and ethanol-mixed fuel.

I recently found this article that gives the ethanol outlook report regarding ethanol. The report involves findings from the International Energy Agency that say biofuels will provide 27% of fuel sources by 2050, up from the 2% it is currently. They attribute this increase to the reason that the current trends in energy supply are unsustainable, so other forms will be utilized in the future to meet the energy demands. They also address the food vs. fuel issue, by saying that they support the use of using food crop waste and cellulosic and algae biofuels instead of corn.

The one part of this article that I found the most interesting was the price difference between gasoline and ethanol, which is at $1.20 when the government tax credit is included. With such a discount, demand for ethanol will most likely increase. I mean I would go for it if I could save around $10 at the pump each time I filled up.

I found this video about ethanol production from Modern Marvels that I liked a lot. It seems a little pro ethanol skewed, but it is still very informational and a good watch.