About the Intermountain West
Geothermal Consortium



A National Need

The President and the Congress have repeatedly said that the United States must diversify its national energy portfolio to—

Geothermal energy is a key component of this portfolio both for electricity generation and direct-use of geothermal heat. It requires full utilization of high and low temperature geothermal resources, increased geothermal power generation, expansion of existing geothermal facilities, and the development of resources in urban settings close to end users.

The Intermountain West contains tremendous geothermal resource potential that can power regional economic growth, and support the nation’s energy security needs.

Members

With locations in four western States, the IWGC is poised to aid industry, state governments, and municipalities in harnessing the region’s geothermal resource potential through science, education, and technology transfer.

The consortium has developed the first coherent, integrated research program and geothermal energy plan for the geothermal research community, government, and industry. It will focus on targeted studies of the direct-use potential of low-temperature resources, and the electricity generation potential of high- and moderate-temperature resources.

While our research has a regional focus, the resulting learning and technologies will be used to boost utilization of geothermal energy throughout the nation.

The Consortium has experience with exploration, utilization, and assessment of geothermal resources in a wide variety of geothermal settings throughout the world. We utilize a truly multidisciplinary approach that integrates geology, geophysics, aqueous and isotope geochemistry, remote sensing, hydrology, numerical modeling, reservoir engineering, and tracer interpretation.

We work with industry, municipalities, and local businesses and homeowners to develop geothermal resources for direct use applications, and power generation. Consortium members have a proven history of developing new technologies and transferring them to private industry.

The initial membership of IWGC is defined in the authorization language to be:

It is anticipated that membership will be expanded in the future.

Management Team

The authorization language states that the consortium shall “have a director appointed by Boise State University, and associate directors appointed by each participating institution.”

Members of the consortium have elected to have the directorship rotate between the member organizations.

Director

Walter Snyder
Boise State University
(208) 426-5905
wsnyder@boisestate.edu

Associate Directors

Robert Neilson
Idaho National Laboratory
(208) 526-8274
robert.neilson@inl.gov


Chris Maples
Desert Research Institute
(775) 673-7463
chris.maples@dri.edu


John Lund
GeoHeat Center, Oregon Institute of Technology
(541) 885-1750
john.lund@oit.edu


John Tracy
University of Idaho, Water Resources Research Institute
(208) 332-4422
tracy@uidaho.edu


David Curtiss
Energy & Geoscience Institute, University of Utah
(801) 587-7925
dcurtiss@egi.utah.edu

Proposed Advisory Board


Proposed members of IWGC’s advisory board have yet to meet. We anticipate the first during summer 2007:

Daniel Schochet, Ormat International, Inc.
Doug Glaspey, US Geothermal Inc.
Colin Williams, U.S. Geological Survey
Rich Halvey, Western Governors' Association
Roy Mink, US Department of Energy
State Energy Representative