Thursday, 7 December 2017

Mt. Baker, an Active Volcano that Could Power the Lower Mainland

Washingtons state is now turning to its volcanos to develop clean renewable energy, one more State looking toward their ring of fire resources for clean energy. Geothermal electric plants are the cheapest form of renewable energy on the planet with the smallest footprint, and run 24 hours a day 7 days a week.They can also be expanding by simply drilling more bore holes. Mt. Baker, right on the BC lower mainland border, is now being explored by Washington State for this purpose. Clearly, this volcanoes hot springs and hot spots flow over the border as you can see from this section of the geological surveys geothermal resource map below.

Section from Geothermal Resource Map, Geological Survey of Canada
As you can see from this map in the purple zone on the border just the other side of Mt. Baker, where Washington State is planning their geothermal electric plants, we also have a hot zone. In Iceland hot springs in volcanic areas are often found around geothermal plants as they indicate areas where geothermal fields are easily reached. Harrison Hotsprings is located in this purple zone, so clearly there are untapped geothermal fields extending a considerable distance from the base of Mt. Baker. The maps shown below show similar geothermal zones in Iceland and the locations of the geothermal plants in these zones.

Courtesy of Energy Statistics in Iceland 2013, Orkustofnun
In the North American Ring of fire, there are already numerous geothermal plants. In the table below you can see California alone has 20 geothermal electric plants and Nevada has 10. Clearly, Washington State is playing catch up and British Columbia is standing still. With the whole developed world racing to exploid renewable energy, it is an abrogation of our international responsibilities not to exploit this clean resource.

In British Columbia itself there are hundreds of know hot springs, and likely more that are still undiscovered, so it is not just the Lower mainland that could have enough geothermal energy to run large geothermal electrical plants but the whole province. A final point of interest is the plants in Iceland have such a small footprint that they can be housed in architecturally beautiful buildings that do not mar the landscape and also house hot spring resorts within their infrastructure. The byproduct of a geothermal plant is hot water and this can be used to heat greenhouses, apartment buildings and whole towns.

Geothermal Exhibition Hall set in Geothermal Power Plant, Hveragerdi Iceland
Power Plant Name Current MWe Capacity Country State
5
 Costa Rica Guanacaste
115
 Costa Rica Guanacaste
15.45
 Costa Rica Guanacaste
27.5
 Costa Rica Guanacaste
36
 Costa Rica Guanacaste
95
 El Salvador Ahuachapan
109
 El Salvador Usulutan
25.2
 Guatemala Escuintla
28
 Guatemala Quetzaltenango
60
 Iceland Nordhurland Eystra
303
 Iceland Reykjavik
74.4
 Iceland Reykjavik
120
 Iceland Sudhurland
150
 Iceland Sudhurnes
562.5
 Italy Pisa
9.5
 Japan Akita
50
 Japan Akita
28.8
 Japan Akita
65
 Japan Fukushima
50
 Japan Hokkaido
80
 Japan Iwate
23.5
 Japan Iwate
12.5
 Japan Kagoshima
30
 Japan Kagoshima
30
 Japan Kagoshima
2
 Japan Kumamoto
3
 Japan Kumamoto
12.5
 Japan Miyagi
28
 Japan Miyazaki
110
 Japan Oita
0.1
 Japan Oita
2
 Japan Oita
0.05
 Japan Oita
3.3
 Japan Tokyo
45
 Kenya Rift Valley
70
 Kenya Rift Valley
48
 Kenya Rift Valley
180
 Mexico Baja California
220
 Mexico Baja California
220
 Mexico Baja California
100
 Mexico Baja California
10
 Mexico Baja California Sur
195
 Mexico Michoacán
40
 Mexico Puebla
108.3
 New Zealand Bay of Plenty
6.4
 New Zealand Bay of Plenty
25
 New Zealand Northland
55
 New Zealand Waikato
171
 New Zealand Waikato
122.4
 New Zealand Waikato
23
 New Zealand Waikato
110
 New Zealand Waikato
34
 New Zealand Waikato
140
 New Zealand Waikato
77
 Nicaragua Leon
82
 Nicaragua Leon
330
 Philippines Albay
106
 Philippines Cotabato
442.8
 Philippines Laguna
700.9
 Philippines Leyte
49.37
 Philippines Negros Occidental
192.5
 Philippines Negros Oriental
150
 Philippines Sorsogon
47.4
 Turkey Aydin
47.4
 Turkey Aydin
35.8
 United States of America California
25
 United States of America California
24.4
 United States of America California
176.4
 United States of America California
90
 United States of America California
92.2
 United States of America California
90
 United States of America California
110
 United States of America California
110
 United States of America California
1273
 United States of America California
52
 United States of America California
35.8
 United States of America California
35.8
 United States of America California
31.2
 United States of America California
53.9
 United States of America California
51
 United States of America California
48
 United States of America California
78
 United States of America California
39.6
 United States of America California
38
 United States of America California
35
 United States of America Hawaii
17
 United States of America Nevada
32.9
 United States of America Nevada
60.5
 United States of America Nevada
11
 United States of America Nevada
4.8
 United States of America Nevada
26.1
 United States of America Nevada
22.6
 United States of America Nevada
22.6
 United States of America Nevada
21
 United States of America Nevada
2.2
 United States of America Nevada
26
 United States of America Utah

Links:

Energy Statistics in Iceland 2013, Orkustofnun

Current List of Geothermal Power Plants, Global Energy Observatory

Favourability Map of British Columbia Geothermal Resources, Sarah Kimball

Geothermal Resources of British Columbia, Geological Survey of Canada

ISOR Iceland Geosurvey

 Geothermal Exploration of Mount Baker Hot Springs Through Ground-Based Magnetic and Gravity Surveys.  William Schermerhorn, et al.

In the Northwest, A Push to Protect Forest As Geothermal Projects Near, Ashley Ahearn.

Geophysical Investigations of Mount Baker Geothermal Play, William Schermerhorn

Geothermal Exploration using Play-Fairway Analysis in Washington State, Corina Forson.



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