Skip to main content
Donate

L.A. to Buy More Geothermal Power From Northern Nevada

By Chris Clarke
March 11, 2013
Support Provided By
gabbs-valley-3-11-13-thumb-600x450-46906
The Gabbs Valley will supply Los Angeles with geothermal power | Photo: Ken Lund/Flickr/Creative Commons License

 

The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (DWP) is set to start buying electricity from a new geothermal generating station in northern Nevada, DWP announced today on Twitter. Unless the Los Angeles City Council decides to intervene in the next few days, 13.71 megawatts of power from the Wild Rose Geothermal Facility near Gabbs, NV will start flowing toward L.A.'s grid in January 2014.

 
The 20-year power purchase agreement, which is part of a deal that also involves Burbank's municipal electrical utility, will set DWP back $99 per megawatt-hour, for an anticipated cost of $11 million a year.

The DWP's announcement came in low-key form Monday morning on Twitter:

The 35-megawatt Wild Rose facility, owned by the geothermal firm Ormat, is now under construction in Mineral County, Nevada west of Gabbs. Approved by the BLM only a few months ago, the plant is expected to begin generating power late this year.

Support Provided By
Read More
Gray industrial towers and stacks rise up from behind the pitched roofs of warehouse buildings against a gray-blue sky, with a row of yellow-gold barrels with black lids lined up in the foreground to the right of a portable toilet.

California Isn't on Track To Meet Its Climate Change Mandates. It's Not Even Close.

According to the annual California Green Innovation Index released by Next 10 last week, California is off track from meeting its climate goals for the year 2030, as well as reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.
By Alejandro Lazo, CalMatters
A row of cows stands in individual cages along a line of light-colored enclosures, placed along a dirt path under a blue sky dotted with white puffy clouds.

A Battle Is Underway Over California’s Lucrative Dairy Biogas Market

California is considering changes to a program that has incentivized dairy biogas, to transform methane emissions into a source of natural gas. Neighbors are pushing for an end to the subsidies because of its impact on air quality and possible water pollution.
By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Inside Climate News
A Black woman with long, black brains wears a black Chicago Bulls windbreaker jacket with red and white stripes as she stands at the top of a short staircase in a housing complex and rests her left hand on the metal railing. She smiles slightly while looking directly at the camera.

Los Angeles County Is Testing AI's Ability To Prevent Homelessness

In order to prevent people from becoming homeless before it happens, Los Angeles County officials are using artificial intelligence (AI) technology to predict who in the county is most likely to lose their housing. They would then step in to help those people with their rent, utility bills, car payments and more so they don't become unhoused.
By Marisa Kendall, CalMatters