Now we KNOW that Montserrat is like no other place in the world — so perhaps the Montserrat way is to use BIG TRUCKS to send the message to tourists — send money but don’t bother to come.

So to get the “feeling” of being in Montserrat — check into a hotel next to a gravel pit and lay out in the sun next to the pool listen to the trucks from sun up to sun down???

Just wondering?? Ya know!

The only news that Google digs up are the usual rehashing of the old news about the Geothermal conference held 6 months ago on Nevis. But there have been no reports of ground breaking for the new Geothermal Electrical Generating plant on Nevis.

As for Montserrat –no Geothermal news is expected until the volcano goes into a long remission. Yes, that volcano is sort of like cancer that continues to eat away on a body.

Although those of us not living on Nevis are anxious for some good news about their Geothermal power plant — it must be much harder for the citizens of Nevis, knowing that the potential of less expensive and abundant electrical power is just under the ground ready to be tapped.

Re: Whats going with GEOTHERMAL? LONG TIME NO HEAR !

Premier Parry says if there’s no geothermal energy in Nevis by Dec.
20010, WIP will be thrown under the bus and….., God alone knows what
will happen next.
As per record, I won’t miss a heartbeat about what our good premier
says.

—-original Message—–
From: xxxx
To: skn@yahoogroups.com <skn@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Sat, Dec 5, 2009 11:31 am
Subject: Whats going with GEOTHERMAL? LONG TIME NO HEAR !

This exchange does not sent a great message to those of us waiting for a progress report on the Construction of the Geothermal plant on Nevis. Construction should be well underway by now — one would think seeing that 2010 is just a few short weeks away.

Meanwhile on Montserrat — the volcano keeps the broom makers busy. The inhabited areas of the Northwest part of the island saw the results of the current eruption in the form of ash. Which means that Montserrat’s geothermal has been placed on the back burner yet again. (Nothing in writing — but that would be a guess that no odd’s maker would take.)

How about the folks who took the mummy found on Montserrat — BEFORE the first eruption — return that mummy to Montserrat. Hey — if the SAC can make up statistical numbers using SWAG (scientific wild ass guessing) — perhaps some respect for the goddess of the volcano might also be in order??

That would be construction on the Geothermal Power Plant which was supposed to be on line in 2009, but that slipped to 2010. Those of us interested in Geothermal keep waiting to hear the comments on the building progress from Nevis. Google updates has not sent any Nevis Geothermal updates in several weeks.

At the same time it would be nice to hear about Geothermal related drilling on Montserrat. Last we heard a contract had been signed and then SILENCE. Of course it is now the hurricane season. Then again the MVO has declared the prime drilling area off limits — so that might be the reason why there are no official announcements. Perhaps certain individuals associated in some fashion with the Government of Montserrat who told someone who lives full time in Montserrat that Geothermal would NEVER happen in his lifetime (the non Government associated person)– perhaps the somewhat, sort of attached to the Government of Montserrat individual knows what he is talking about?

Right now all that is going on, besides watching for hurricanes, is POLITICS. There are lots of speeches and promises of a more super duper improved future IF votes are cast for X politician. Politics are the same the world over. Promices and manifestos — and then the reality of governing without enough income to pay for all the promises. Yet people keep believing the politicians and even manage to vote.

However, Montserrat still has an appointed Governor with the final say — because Montserrat is still in a state of emergency and under the thumb of the UK. So Montserrat elects a slate of politicians who get to play at being politicians — as far as the Governor will allow them. At least this governor doesn’t attend Parliament in fluffy tea frocks.

IF Montserrat were a French colony instead, more than likely Montserrat would have an operation Geothermal plant. Of course the French could not stop the volcano from doing her dance.

Did anyone notice?? July is over and there was no new eruption or dance from the volcano. In the past few years a July display of the Volcano’s spirits was half expected and half dreaded.

There was some sort of “secret” report from Nevis on the “official” Geothermal website. According to the Google alert this information could only be accessed via a secret password. Seem like the Geothermal power plant should be well into its construction phase. So far all the PR photos are of geothermal well heads in the background and a group of smiling men.

For the sake of the electric customers on Nevis let’s hope that they get to see a reduction in their power bills sometime very soon.

The batteries for electric autos have been one of the stalling points of the popular acceptance of electric cars. Coda Automotive will be involved in a joint venture to create the super battery — Lithium batteries. Ironically Lithium is one of the minerals in the brine mentioned in the story below about Geothermal plants being half Geothermal and half mining operations. Wouldn’t it be interesting if the lithium mined in Montserrat were to be used in a battery FACTORY on Montserrat?? It could happen.

Imagine IF Montserrat had a functioning Geothermal Electrical power plant up and running.

Well first Monlec would need to install battery recharging units at either private homes or in public lots throughout the island. Next question would the fuel monopoly on Montserrat start to howl in protest?

Sources:

http://www.autoblog.com/2009/06/03/miles-ev-launches-coda-automotive-for-full-speed-electric-sedan/

Here is a hypothetical situation on a mythical island somewhere among a chain of islands — Volcano islands. This island is somewhere in the South Pacific.

One day while the citizens of this hypothetical island are enjoying the endless sun and watching the tourist arrive on boats and planes they notice some serious businessmen arriving with brief cases and they are met by the guy who just won the last election. By the next week word is leaking out that these businessmen are serious about helping the citizens of this island lower their electric bill and the answer is Geothermal. Cheaper electricity — where do we sign?

Financing for the Geothermal power plant is found and in a few months the people of this island are seeing lower power bills. Everyone is celebrating.

There are plenty of lawyers on this island and they negotiated a fair deal for the people of the island. The power plant won’t get in the way of the tourist, who probably won’t even venture up the back road where the power plant is located.

It turns out that since Geothermal is considered a green or non polluting industry that companies are willing to pay the owners of the Hypothetical Geothermal on the Hypothetical Island money in trade so that these companies can stay in business. This is a win win deal for owners of the Hypothetical Geothermal power plant and the owners of the companies.

Then one of the local kids who went off college, comes home and starts asking about the income from selling carbon credits. Hey kid — what are you talking about? We have tiny electrical bills. The kid knows that the Geothermal power plant is producing 150 MW and is exporting a large chunk of the electricity to near-by islands. The kid, now a young woman and a college graduate learned about Carbon Credit Trading in her economics class.

Did the lawyers and politicians know about Carbon Credit Trading and the potential income from this to the island?

The kid is busy using her lap top computer and the new Internet wireless service  on her island to search for information about Carbon Credit Trading. In this not so hypothetical real world — Carbon Credit Trading is very real and there is more than enough information to put us all to sleep for the next decade.

Carbon credits create a market for reducing greenhouse emissions by giving a monetary value to the cost of polluting the air. Emissions become an internal cost of doing business and are visible on the balance sheet alongside raw materials and other liabilities or assets.

By way of example, consider a business that owns a factory putting out 100,000 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in a year. Its government is an Annex I country that enacts a law to limit the emissions that the business can produce. So the factory is given a quota of say 80,000 tonnes per year. The factory either reduces its emissions to 80,000 tonnes or is required to purchase carbon credits to offset the excess. After costing up alternatives the business may decide that it is uneconomical or infeasible to invest in new machinery for that year. Instead it may choose to buy carbon credits on the open market from organizations that have been approved as being able to sell legitimate carbon credits.

We should consider the impact of manufacturing alternative energy sources. For example, the energy consumed and the Carbon emitted in the manufacture and transportation of a large wind turbine would prohibit a credit being issued for a predetermined period of time.

* One seller might be a company that will offer to offset emissions through a project in the developing world, such as recovering methane from a swine farm to feed a power station that previously would use fossil fuel. So although the factory continues to emit gases, it would pay another group to reduce the equivalent of 20,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere for that year.
* Another seller may have already invested in new low-emission machinery and have a surplus of allowances as a result. The factory could make up for its emissions by buying 20,000 tonnes of allowances from them. The cost of the seller’s new machinery would be subsidized by the sale of allowances. Both the buyer and the seller would submit accounts for their emissions to prove that their allowances were met correctly.  [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_credits ]

Sources:

http://www.greenchipstocks.com/aqx_p/8087?gclid=CK-o_t_c3ZsCFQXGsgod7mED_Q

http://www.cantorco2e.com/Environment/?page=Voluntary_Services&gclid=CLmMnI3e3ZsCFVlM5Qod4TFB_w

http://www.verdantix.com/index.cfm/papers/Products.Details/product_id/42/first-rggi-auction-is-a-crucial-proof-of-concept/-?gclid=CK3wp6re3ZsCFQRM5QodZ0UTAg

Here is some interesting information about Geothermal in Nevada:

On geothermal resource maps, Nevada stands out for the abundance of geothermal resources within its borders. About half the state is covered in geothermal hot spots of varying quality.“There’s tons of geothermal hot spots in Nevada,” said Lisa Shevenell, director of the Great Basin Center for Geothermal Energy at UNR.

—————

In all, Nevada has more than 630,000 acres of BLM land leased to geothermal developers. In the last land lease sale BLM auctioned off more than 105,000 acres to geothermal developers.That sale brought Nevada more than $14 million in revenue, with about $7 million more being split between counties where the leases are located. The 2007 lease sale saw 122,848 acres leased to geothermal companies.

. . . .  .

Geothermal energy is expected to cost about 7.3 cents per kilowatt hour by 2030 compared to 8.1 cents per kilowatt for wind, 12.5 cents per kilowatt hour for concentrating solar thermal and about 22.9 cents per kilowatt hour for solar photovoltaic, according to the Energy Department. By contrast, “clean coal” technology is expected to cost 7.6 cents per kilowatt hour by 2030 and advanced natural gas generated electricity is expected to cost 8.6 cents per kilowatt hour. Geothermal might be cheaper, but it’s also much tougher to develop mostly because of the time it takes to get a plant operating. The process can take from six years to a decade, according to Daniel Fleischmann, project initiation manager for geothermal giant Ormat.

————————-
It usually takes about three years just to do resource exploration, lease land and obtain permits for exploratory drilling, Fleischmann told a group of geothermal energy engineers and developers at the conference. That can be stretched out even longer if the mineral rights on the property are shared by several holders or if there are sensitive environmental or cultural issues. It can be tough to get a geothermal project financed even in a good credit market. Energy project financing is highly dependent on the power purchase agreements with utilities. But those are much tougher to obtain for geothermal plants because about half the cost of development comes before a site’s resource is fully understood.

Source for the quotes above.

Laws involving mineral rights laws in the US are well defined, as are land use laws. In comparison, the Caribbean seems more like the frontier days of the old west where few if any land use laws existed. Nevada is a huge state where geothermal plants can be tucked away on large tracts of land, not so on small Caribbean islands. Admittedly the newest geothermal power plant on Guadeloupe  Island, has been tucked away behind trees so that the sun bathers on the near by beaches most often are not aware that just up the hill is the power plant that supplies the power for the hotel’s air conditioning and other essential needs.

The down side of geothermal power for Caribbean islands would be securing the land for the geothermal plants. Next would be spelling out exactly who owns the Mineral Rights (laws may need to be enacted to spell out mineral rights involving mining the geothermal brine). Many of the islands are tourist destination and the power plants must be planned so that this source of revenue is not sacrificed for geothermal power. Tourism is an industry which provides employment for a large segment of many Caribbean island.

Tourism on Montserrat is another story, and with half the island mostly off limits, hiding a geothermal plant might not be a major consideration. The 2004 and 2006 meetings of Caribbean geothermal stakeholders addressed the issue of the lack of geothermal related laws on islands with geothermal potential.

Map of the general location of geothermal plants in Nevada. Source for this map is (and a larger map) is at Nevada Geothermal Power.

]]> http://montserratgeothermal.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/nevada-geothermal-power/feed/ 0 northwestrain Map-Nevada Geothermal plants http://montserratgeothermal.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/reviews-of-nevis-geothermal-conference/ http://montserratgeothermal.wordpress.com/2009/07/07/reviews-of-nevis-geothermal-conference/#comments Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:54:57 +0000 northwestrain http://montserratgeothermal.wordpress.com/?p=101 ]]> The first report was from St. Lucia. “St. Lucia’s Minister of Physical Development, Urban Renewal, Housing, Environment and Local Government Mr. Richard Frederick said Thursday that his island had much to learn from the Nevis geothermal experience.” Same report also here .
Dominica stepped up to the plate next with a glowing report of the Nevis Geothermal Conference.

“An official of the Dominica Government praised Nevis for its decision to host the 1st Geothermal Conference in the Caribbean. Chief Technical Officer in the Ministry of Energy Public Utilities and Ports Mr. Lucien Blackmore said the well planned and executed event, provided limitless gains for Dominica’s geothermal energy plans.

Mr. Blackmore, who was accompanied by Senior Projects Officer Mr. Michael Fadelle, told the Department of Information at the close of the three-day conference on Friday, that Dominica was also pursuing an aggressive energy development policy for the development of the island’s resources.

“The gains from this week’s session I think are limitless… I think the gains for coming to Nevis cannot be overstated. It was very much invaluable and based on what I know where we are in Dominica, we will benefit tremendously from the conference,” he said.”