What's in this story
- California's geothermal permitting process is criticized for being slow and costly compared with other states.
- Sonoma Clean Power is backing legislation to streamline exploration permits.
- Local agencies are preparing for projects and have partnered to seek funding for site assessment.
California's effort to generate much more round-the-clock clean energy from geothermal resources such as The Geyers area straddling Sonoma and Lake counties seems to be running out of steam because of the state's permitting system.
One of the three initial partners in the geothermal opportunity zone (GeoZone) effort promoted by Sonoma Clean Power has acquired its first parcel of land, known as Pocket Ranch.
However, the permitting process in California is proving to be a significant obstacle for Chevron New Energies to move forward with finding out what potential there is for next-generation geothermal technologies that aim to generate more energy using far less water.
"They are putting that into a slow-moving process, because they're finding that California's permitting process for the exploratory phase is adding too much cost and risk relative to all the other western states," said Geof Syphers, CEO of Sonoma Clean Power, the public electricity supplier for Sonoma and Mendocino counties, that draws a portion of its renewable power from The Geysers.
Click here to read the full article in the North Bay Business Journal.
