Dr. Mock began the session by paying tribute to Dr. Myron Dorfman, Professor of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas, who had just passed away after a protracted illness. Dr. Dorfman, more than other any individual, was responsible for bringing the geopressured-geothermal...

The market for small wind systems in the United States, often defined as systems less than or equal to 100 kW that produce power on the customer side of the meter, is small but growing steadily. The installed capacity of domestic small wind systems in 2002 was reportedly 15-18 MW, though the...

Texas has rapidly emerged as one of the leading wind power markets in the United States. This development can be largely traced to a well-designed and carefully implemented renewables portfolio standard (RPS). The RPS is a new policy mechanism that has received increasing attention as an...

Building on the two previous trips to Central America last year, International Power Institute (IPI) and its partner Tennessee Valley Infrastructure Group (TVIG) have focused their attention this quarter on project sites in Honduras. TVIG's unit--an Integrated Infrastructure Platform or...

The Fossil2 energy-economic model is used by the US Department of Energy (DOE) for a variety of energy and environmental policy analyses. A number of improvements to the model are under way or are being considered. This report was prepared by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory (PNL) to provide a...

This report describes the features of Aspen-EE (Electricity Enhancement), a new model for simulating the interdependent effects of market decisions and disruptions in the electric power system on other critical infrastructures in the US economy. Aspen-EE extends and modifies the capabilities of...

The methodologies used for computing levelized busbar costs of electricity from geothermal (hydrothermal) resources used by 16 organizations active in the geothermal area are discussed. The methodologies are compared by (a) comparing the results obtained by using two standard data sets, (b) a...

As the worldwide use of wind turbine generators continues to increase in utility-scale applications, it will become increasingly important to assess the economic and reliability impact of these intermittent resources. Although the utility industry in the United States appears to be moving...

The market for long-term bulk power is becoming increasingly competitive and mature. Given that many privately developed power projects have been or are being developed in the US, it is possible to begin to evaluate the performance of the market by analyzing its revealed prices. Using a...

The most important factors affecting the economics of geothermal electricity production are the wellhead temperature or enthalpy, the well flow rate, and the cost of the wells. The capital cost of the powerplant is significant, but not highly sensitive to these resource characteristics. The...