California Public Utilities Commission’s Post

I am thankful for a super interesting educational site visit to Middletown, CA with some of my California Public Utilities Commission Energy Division team to learn about the Calpine Geysers - a geothermal powerplant that has supplied baseload renewable energy for decades. There are 13 powerplants across 44 square miles providing ~725 MW of geothermal capacity. The facilities use "renewable" steam heated from the earth brought up via 319 steam wells that travel via 92 miles of pipeline. The facility reinjects water back into the ground - including 15 million gallons of recycled wastewater from Lake and Sonoma counties. We had a gorgeous sunny day to learn about how the area is investing and planning for the future (it now has some energy storage), how they carefully manage their 4 grid interconnections, and how they maintain a high capacity factor across the facilities. We met with an impressive team of dedicated people who carefully manage this incredible resource that supports California's clean energy goals. Yes, they do have a public visitor center if you are ever in the area! https://lnkd.in/ggtXdmPp Sophie Babka, Edmund Dale, Brendan Burns, Neil Raffan, Zoe Draghi, Paul Nelson, Alex Manheimer, Hector Corral, MPA, PMP, Sierra Withers, EIT, Jared Ferguson, Ryan Grieser, Thank you Avis Kowalewski and Diana Gallegos!