Estimating Development Costs of Geothermal Electricity

Abstract

The Four State Geothermal Assessment Project systematically characterized known and inferred moderate to high temperature geothermal sites into eh Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) service area. This characterization of electric generation resource sites was one of four tasks performed by the Assessment Group (geothermal personnel in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington agencies) for Bonneville. Severn steps were involved in the task: 1) development of consistent regional methodology of the interpretation of geologic/geophysical data and estimating resource potential, 2) development of a list of sites to be subsequently ranked for degree of develop ability, 3) development of a detailed site description, 4) characterization each specific site potential, 5) development of typical site configurations, 6) estimate development costs for each site, and 7) estimate levelized energy costs for each site. This paper summarizes the sixth stop of the process, development of cost estimating.