PanTerra in the News :: Geothermal Utility Launches in Colorado
Move over water, gas and electricity—geothermal can now operate as a utility.
KATHERINE TWEED: SEPTEMBER 25, 2012
The recent success of solar PV has nothing to do with the sun shining brighter. Instead, the uptake in solar is largely due to falling technology costs and new financing schemes that don’t rely on homeowners or businesses to shell out cash upfront for an entire system.
Solar models are now informing other renewable energy technologies, namely, geothermal heat pumps. Unlike geothermal power plants, which involve deep drilling to access naturally occurring reservoirs of hot water, geothermal heat pumps sit far closer to the surface and provide heating, cooling and hot water at a fraction of the cost of conventional systems. Despite the incredible resources for different geothermal technologies in the U.S., these vast resources remain largely untapped for many reasons.
The upfront cost of a closed-loop geothermal heat pump, which involves installing a series of liquid-filled underground pipes, has kept the technology on the sidelines. In Colorado, that could become a problem of the past. PanTerra Energy has become the first private company to be registered with the Public Utility Commission as a geothermal utility in Colorado.
Source: GreenTech Media