Coso Geothermal

Geothermal energy is a renewable source of power to be reckoned with. Fortunately interest in it has been growing. According to Geothermal.org, �Geothermal Energy is heat (thermal) derived from the earth (geo). It is the thermal energy contained in the rock and fluid (that fills the fractures and pores within the rock) in the earth's crust�. California is the area with the largest amount of geothermal generating capacity in the United States, including the Coso Geothermal Field, one of America�s largest producers of geothermal electricity.

Located in Coso Volcanic Field, within the China Lake U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station near Ridgecrest, California, commercial power development began in the 1980s. Coso began generating electricity in 1987 and the power is sold into the local utility grid. Power plants at the Coso Geothermal Field are operated by Caithness Energy, LLC (Reno, NV). It currently produces 270 MW from four geothermal power plants.

The Coso geothermal project was the brainchild of Dr. Carl Austin, a research rock mechanics scientist at China Lake who recognized the huge potential of the resource. In the early 1960s, Dr. Austin began a campaign of convincing the Navy to develop the geothermal resource, despite the fact that such an activity was not part of their fundamental mission. But he persevered and in 1977 scientific and engineering work began.

In 2009 Terra-Gen Power announced that its Coso Geothermal Facility had obtained critical permits from the U.S. Department of Interior�s Bureau of Land Management to construct a 9 mile pipeline to recharge the existing geothermal reservoir that will allow the company to increase generation of renewable baseload power at Coso.