City interested in learning from NW Natural geothermal project

Presenter: The city council looks at the potential for geothermal energy in Eugene. On Dec. 9, Climate Policy Analyst Danielle Klinkebiel.

[00:00:08] Danielle Klinkebiel: Danielle Klinkebiel. I’m the climate policy analyst. More cities are starting to pilot geothermal energy networks. For those who aren’t familiar with this concept, this is when you tap into the Earth’s heat to provide very efficient low-carbon heating and cooling to multiple buildings connected through a network of pipes.

[00:00:28] And we plan to meet regularly with NW Natural to understand the evolution of their geothermal pilot project in Vancouver, Washington, both to understand, you know, what types of legislative or other factors might be needed for a project like this to pencil in Eugene.

[00:00:46] Presenter: Councilor Lyndsie Leech.

[00:00:48] Councilor Lyndsie Leech: I’m going to ask this next question just because I’m interested, but also because I don’t know a lot about geothermal energy. Do you see that as a viable source here in Eugene? And what would it take to transition, or would it be more of a pilot? Or does that look like: ‘Gosh, that’s like a decade down the road.’

[00:01:07] Presenter: Danielle Klinkebiel.

[00:01:08] Danielle Klinkebiel: That’s a great question. I think if your question is geographically speaking, geologically, can we do that here? The answer is yes. There’s already ground-source heat pumps that households are putting in. There’s a really amazing pilot project between NW Natural and Homes for Good that’s happened.

[00:01:23] There’s already like geothermal energy being used, but doing it on a network scale, that’s when you connect multiple buildings within a certain block to this network of pipes. That’s going to require quite a bit more, including state legislation that’s different than, we can’t do that yet here, but with state legislation, potentially we could.

[00:01:44] So that’s why we’re tracking really closely what NW Natural is doing in Vancouver, Washington, because Washington passed that legislation that allowed them to move forward on that pilot project.

[00:01:56] We just don’t know how it will pencil, you know, it could be really expensive. So that’s another reason why we’re tracking that project.

[00:02:03] Councilor Lyndsie Leech: Yeah, is that more of when we’re building a new, like, subdivision, it makes the most sense to say that this is the energy source or is this more of a retrofit in an existing neighborhood?

[00:02:14] Presenter: Eugene Sustainability Manager Ian Penn.

[00:02:17] Ian Penn (Eugene, sustainability manager): I think it’s to be determined. I think why we’re tracking these pilots is, the pilots are doing both.

[00:02:21] So there’s a really interesting pilot in Massachusetts where they’re doing a retrofit or renovation and so we’ll get to see cost, technology, limitation, all of that. And then a lot of the pilots in Washington are going to be new construction.

[00:02:32] So kind of charting into new territory and kind of see the differences and the challenges and opportunities for both of those things.

[00:02:38] But I think in terms of something that would occur in Eugene, I think what’s, if it happened, would be a pilot. It would be relatively small-scale. The Framingham, Massachusetts pilot is huge, and so I don’t know we’d see a scale like that, but I think trying to see how it would work and going from there would be the approach, but we’re probably several years away from something like that happening here.

[00:02:56] Presenter: Councilor Alan Zelenka said the Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls (OIT) uses geothermal heat.

[00:03:02] Councilor Alan Zelenka: Local geothermal is really about, at the local scale, at the home scale, business scale, is really about space heating. Utility-scale geothermal to generate electricity requires, really, geothermal resources of very, very hot temperatures like the Cascades and the volcanic areas, Newberry Crater.

[00:03:21] Klamath Falls has a lot of it. OIT (Oregon Institute of Technology) is actually heated but it’s not here, so we’re not going to see generation of electricity by it, but I will point out the new secretary of energy is a geothermal guy, so, hope springs eternal.

[00:03:37] Presenter: Councilor Mike Clark.

[00:03:38] Councilor Mike Clark: I guess my question is for the manager. We kind of declared war on NW Natural Gas a while back and they stopped having productive conversations with us about what we might do together. I am still interested in a Senate Bill 844 agreement to have them spending their money to help weatherize low-income homes in our community. What would it take for them to sit down and have conversations with us again about an agreement?

[00:04:10] Presenter: City Manager Sarah Medary.

[00:04:12] City Manager Sarah Medary: We were pretty far along with that when you started discussing sort of an electrification strategy that caused them to want to pause and wait and see what was going to happen with that.

[00:04:26] Councilor Mike Clark: We called them ‘evil,’ frankly, but yeah, anyway, yeah. (Well)

[00:04:29] City Manager Sarah Medary: I think—this is my opinion—NW Natural would have to have some trust that this council actually wanted to pursue a franchise agreement with them and that you were open to doing that and open to the possibility of that.

[00:04:43] You never directed me not to pursue that, but I think the conversation has gone far enough that I think if I was in NW Natural’s shoes, I would want to see you sort of advocating for us to go back to the table and continue to do that work.

[00:04:58] Presenter: Councilor Mike Clark.

[00:04:59] Councilor Mike Clark: I, for one, would like to see us improve our working relationship, and I would like it to result in monies that come into the city that help our residents pay less for their electricity. And I’m in favor of chasing down that road as a part of this conversation.

[00:05:21] Presenter: With some local properties already using geothermal, the city hopes to learn more from pilot projects, including one with NW Natural in Washington state.