Central Oregon correspondent Ethan Lindsey reports from one of the hottest "hotbeds" of geothermal power and research, Klamath Falls.
The tropical fish aisle in your local Petco isn't glamorous. In fact, it can be downright depressing.
But, and this is no big fish story, this mega pet mart is part of our country's renewable energy future.
...remember, this is the high desert of southern Oregon. Why in the heck is this guy raising tropical fish outdoors here?
Ron Barnes: "It's cold here. And these fish -- we keep these ponds here at 80 degrees year-round, so when it's 5 degrees outside, we create our own fog bank."
That 80-degree water is the answer. Barnes gets it for free, from a regular-old well.
Ron Barnes: "What we do is impossible, without the geothermal water. It's ridiculous. You couldn't do what we do economically, and almost physically, because there's 3 million gallons of water in ponds here. And you can't keep that hot enough, if you were paying to heat it. It's just not, basically, possible."
That free, renewable energy in the hot water is why many see geothermal power as a key piece of a green energy future.
In Klamath Falls, for example, geothermal wells benefit more than just fish.
John Lund is the director of the Geo-Heat Center at the Oregon Institute of Technology.
John Lund: "They heat most of the eastside of the city, most of the schools. We have greenhouses that are heated in town, we melt snow, and we even have a brewery that makes their beer using geothermal energy."
Right now, worldwide, about 25,000 megawatts of heat energy comes from geothermal sources.
Many experts predict that could double in the near future – saving a lot of natural gas and electrical heating power in the process.
The city estimates that its geothermal sources replace 60 megawatts worth of conventional power every year and that amounts to a savings of 50,000 barrels of oil and millions-of-dollars.
And remember, because of its consistent nature, geothermal is an ever-present, baseload power source.
The cost is relatively inexpensive, ranging from 3 to 7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
That's a little less than Oregon customers pay for power right now.
Read more from Ethan Lindsey here
