Tuesday, April 13, 2010, 3:14pm PDT | Modified: April 13, 2010, 4:17 PM

Geothermal heat and power plant fires up a first for Oregon

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Geothermal Combined Heat and Power Plant at OIT

Next week, Oregon Institute of Technology will cut the ribbon on a new, clean power plant sitting in a building that used to house an oil-fired boiler on the school’s Klamath Falls campus.

The announcement comes on the heels of a report out Tuesday from the Geothermal Energy Association that places Oregon as one of nine U.S. states with active geothermal energy projects and second only to California in funding for geothermal projects.

The new OIT plant, which will generate electricity by tapping geothermally heated water and also use the water to heat the campus, represents years of planning and a $380,000 investment in a Pratt & Whitney power-generation unit.

The unit, the first of its kind to be deployed in Oregon, can take relatively low-temperature water — about 190 degrees — and use it to generate electricity that will be used to pump hot water for heat on campus and, when there’s an excess, be sold back to Pacific Power, the local utility.

Geothermal energy is produced when extreme underground temperatures heat water to produce steam. In most geothermal operations that steam is used to turn a turbine, but with this new method, a second fluid with a lower boiling point is used to generate the electricity.

Tapping lower-temperature geothermal heat is seen as a big step forward for the industry as it makes it easier to generate electricity from hot water.

“We are looking to do more geothermal projects,” said Betsy Kauffman, senior program manager for Energy Trust of Oregon. Kauffman said that the always-on nature of geothermal energy gives it an advantage over intermittent power sources such as wind or solar.

“It also has a smaller footprint,” Kauffman said. “You’d have to install a football field of solar panels to generate as much power as the OIT plant.”

Energy Trust assisted with the project by hiring a consulting engineer to work with OIT and by securing $487,000 in incentives to fund the infrastructure.

The new report from the Geothermal Energy Association said Oregon received $40 million in stimulus funds for geothermal projects. In all, 15 active projects with the capacity of 473 megawatts, are up and running in Oregon, according to the report. Overall, geothermal energy saw 26 percent industry growth in the past year.

At OIT, the educational aspect of the power plant is also valuable. The school offers a renewable energy engineering degree and has become known for its geothermal expertise. “Being a public institute we have no problem showing off our power plant. We give tours all the time,” said Toni Boyd, assistant director of the Geo-Heat Center at OIT.