Pop quiz: Which company can lay claim to the title as the world’s largest producer of Geothermal Energy? Times up- If you guessed oil giant Chevron, you’re right.
Chevron is in fact the world’s largest producer of geothermal energy, a renewable resource that generates near inexhaustible power while producing virtually no greenhouse gas emissions.
In Indonesia, the power plants Chevron owns and operate produce enough electricity to meet the needs of more than 3.9 million homes. In July 2007, they expanded the effort by commercial production at the 110-megawatt Darajat Unit III geothermal power plant in Garut, West Java. This new unit brings their total geothermal generating capacity at Garut to 259 megawatts.
Their plants in the Philippines supply 7 percent of the electricity to Luzon, the country’s largest island with a population of more than 48 million.
While this is all quite encouraging on a global scale, many Americans feel like they are being neglected by Chevron’s impressive ambitions. To that the company counters with their domestic efforts of exploring the potential of hydrogen. Through their subsidiary, Chevron Technology Ventures, they are investing in a vast number of domestic projects aiming to learn more about design and operation of hydrogen fuel systems. Among these mentionables:
A 2007 research project with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory to develop technology to produce transportation fuels from algae.
In early 2008 Chevron formed a joint venture with Weyerhaeuser Co. to develop the next generation of renewable transportation fuels from nonfood sources.
A recent collaboration with the Ford Motor Company and Progress Energy in Florida to design and build the state’s first advanced hydrogen energy station. The station, which became operational in early 2007, fuels a fleet of hydrogen-powered shuttle buses used at the Orlando International Airport and the Orange County Convention Center.
Finally in Southern California, Edison Chevron has been using electrolysis to produce hydrogen from water to power a fleet of fuel-cell vehicles.
