LAKE COUNTY — The Geysers will get a boost from the sun, according to an amendment to an existing agreement between three agencies regarding the Southeast Geysers Effluent Pipeline Project.
Approved unanimously by the Lake County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, the amendment will switch approximately one mega-watt of the project”s largest pump station to solar energy.
The agreement is between Lake County Sanitation District (LaCoSan), the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) and Calpine Corporation. The three entities make-up an oversight committee for the pipeline project that sends treated sewer water from four Lake County pump stations to the Geysers on Cobb Mountain, where it is used to replenish steam fields that create geo-thermal energy.
“This is a way to make an already environmentally friendly project even greener,” Lake County Special Districts administrator Mark Dellinger said.
The Geysers operations use the power of steam from the earth”s crust to generate renewable energy. Where the earth”s crust is particularly thin, magma turns water trapped in minute cracks in a hard layer of rock into steam. Geological experts and engineers determine the ideal location to drill wells to tap the steam and use it to power generators in plants placed strategically in the area.
The solar project will power the pipeline project”s largest pump station.
The committee plans to install 6,000 single-axis modules on 13 acres adjacent to the pump station. The modules will rotate east to west as the sun moves through the sky.
Dellinger said the annual cost to run the pipeline project is $3.3 million. “Ratepayers pay 10 percent of the O and M (operations and management) cost through LaCoSan”s budget,” Dellinger said. Annual savings from the solar energy produced will equate to approximately $235,000, or 25 percent of the total bill.
Dellinger said he expects the project to be up and running next fall.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com
