New Geothermal Electricty Plant Near Seattle

Thanks in part to rising oil prices, and State mandates about renewable energy, Washington State will be opening a geothermal energy plant near the Cascade mountains.

I was unaware, but the Cascade mountains are part of the ring of fire, a group of hot spots around the Pacific rim that has a number of active volcanoes. Besides Iceland, the US uses more geothermal energy than anybody else in the world.

The process is simple: pump cool water down into the earth. Hot rocks warmed by magma turns the hot water into steam, and a turbine on top turns the steam into electricity. Its one of the cleanest and greenest forms of energy we have... rivaling even solar power. California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Oregon also have plenty of geothermal energy to tap... they just need some capital. Some more good news:

A recent Massachusetts Institute of Technology study found that the amount of geothermal power that could be recovered from deep drilling would represent almost 3,000 times the amount of energy currently consumed in the United States.

woah...

So the west has geothermal... the midwest has wind and biofuels... what about the east coast? Until solar catches up with coal (and some say it already has), the east is the odd man out...