Working with Mother Earth / Shoshone Nation breaks ground on...

Working with Mother Earth / Shoshone Nation breaks ground on geothermal plant in Honeyville
Friday, October 3, 2008
By DI LEWIS
Standard-Examiner staff

Tribal leaders from the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation met with business, government and other tribal leaders from around the world Thursday afternoon near Honeyville to break ground for a geothermal energy plant, which will deliver 100 megawatts of electricity to Riverdale, Calif.

The plant will be the first of five or six geothermal plants built by a partnership between Idatherm and the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, and funded primarily by Meridian Investments and the Ireland-based LotusWorks.

"We used to use the hot water when we camped in the winter. We're just back to our original energy source," said Bruce Parry, chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation.

Idatherm founder Lance Loveland said the plant will carry water deep into the earth so it can be warmed up to heat isobutane, a substance that becomes steam at a lower temperature than water. The steam turns a turbine, which generates electricity.

The plant, when running at full capacity, will be able to power nearly 80,000 homes a day, Loveland said. The first phase should be finished in 2010, he said, and the whole project completed in 2012.

The project will cost just more than $450 million, Parry said.