Raser Technologies Incorporated has discovered a large geothermal field for renewable energy about 180 miles southwest of Salt Lake City. The company’s stock has quickly risen on news that it is near completion of commissioning its first geothermal power units in Beaver County, at a place called Thermo.
Raser is using 250 Kw power units from UTC Power, Inc. to turn the hot water, deep underground into electricity. The power generated will be enough to eventually supply 200,000 homes and electricity from the site will be piped to Anaheim, California within weeks.
Geothermal sites such as this can be a windfall for small startup companies such as Raser since California has a mandate that 30-percent of the power generated in the state by 2020 must be renewable. Raser has been buying up land leases for the past five years that other geothermal companies have passed up.
This is because Raser specialized in low boil technology deemed unsuitable for other companies. The Geysers geothermal field northeast of San Francisco is the largest in the nation, supplying 900 MW of power.