aeronaut4life

Raser Technologies' Short Term Prospects Weaken on Failed Attempts at Funding

What most people don't know is that the DOE denial of the loan guarantee had nothing to do with the geothermal site itself. On the first Thermo project, Raser did most everything itself from being the general contractor, as well as the entity that will maintain and operate the plant, etc. The DOE, as part of the economic stimulus effort, simply wanted to wealth to be spread among multiple parties. For example, DOE wanted an alternative source for the generating units. In it's denial, the DOE provided Raser a list of changes it would like to see in the application and encouraged Raser to re-apply before the Sept. 10th deadline.

Raser Technologies: The Ugly Duckling of Alternative Energy

While the Pure Cycle binary generation units themselves are indeed UTC's intellectual property, there's more to a geothermal plant than than. Raser has succeeded in developing a proprietary rapid deployment modular plant design, including how it is controlled and monitored. In a traditional stick-built geothermal project, it takes about 5 years to build a plant because of sequencing issues. Therefore, nearly half of the development cost is interest paid on the funding commitment. Raser's rapid deployment design drastically changes the economics of geothermal. Don't forget that under the funding arrangement with Merrill Lynch, Raser's capital contribution to a new plant is well field development, meaning drilling the production and re-injection wells, flow testing, etc. Merrill completely funds the construction of the above-ground plant. The water temperature after passing through the first set of turbines is still sufficient to generate more power before being re-injected. So, Raser installs 50% more turbines at no additional capital outlay for Raser. The bottom cycling add-on is funded entirely by Merrill. Get a clue, people!