terryhallinan

Tapping into Geothermal

Ram Power swallowed Polaris Geothermal and Western GeoPower and will be trading shortly. It is to be headed up by former executives of Ormat apparently not as keen on the sluggish growth as others.

A minimum of DD would have shown Magma Energy (MXY.TO) has even bought an interest in an Iceland geothermal field to the dismay of Icelanders.

A most interesting stock Down Under is Panax (PAX.AX). Panax is headed by a co-founder of Geodynamics but is not into drilling deep into the bowels of the earth as other deep thinkers are with all the risks of an uproven technology.

There are a great number of opportunities, maybe most particularly in technology utilizing low temperature geothermal resources, but you have to look for them.

Best, Terry

Raser Technologies: A Short Squeeze in the Making

From the heady heights of OTI's "Mile High Campus" to a lowland geothermal conference in Europe has come word that the future of geothermal power lies more in low entropy distributed energy geothermal resources than the hotter megaprojects that currently blot out the sun. The deep thinkers at MIT looking far below the surface may take century or even a millenia to see their dreams realized though they surely lit up the sky with their forecasts of the potential for Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS).

From a "magic pond" in Vermont, where the water never freezes, to the Paiute Indian Reservation at Ft. Bidwell in California to Texas leasing depleted oil and gas wells to North Slope oil and gas producers looking to geothermal power for their nefarious activities, the lie is put to bashers claiming there is no future for the UTX technology.

I was frankly surprised by the praise lavished on the UTX technology by an executive of a company with a competing technology - the Kalina cycle. The Kalina cycle was first deployed in the remote village of Husavik, Iceland. The low temperature geothermal waters were further heated by a garbage burning-facility that about doubled the power output to 2MW.

For sure I have put my money on the hot prospects but it is simply false to claim that there is no possible future for what RZ is attempting.

I make no representation that RZ will be a profitable investment or otherwise and have no skin in their game for now.

I am only appalled by the misrepresentations here.

Best, Terry

10 Alternative Energy Stock Speculations for 2008: Performance Update

Re: Nevada Geothermal Power

"I expect the big gains for this stock to come before their Pumpernickel project begins to produce electricity"

Doesn't Blue Mountain count for anything? :-)

Just nudging you a little. Blue Mountain is the first and most advanced. Sierra Geothermal has earned a share of Pumpernickel by by doing some work on the project. FWIW the Crump Geyser is likely a huge resource in Oregon that has been sitting idle for nearly half a century. Oregon was very hostile to geothermal development until very recently.

Thanks for an interesting list.

Best, Terry
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