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Geothermal, Wind, Solar, Hydro and Bio-mass. Lake County has Potential. "Turning a problem into an opportunity is a learned skill. The energy challenges that face America represent a tremendous opportunity for leadership, technical innovation, job creation and lifestyle that is comfortable, satisfying and sustainable.” Joe Schwartz, Home Power Magazine
 Elk Horn Valley Wind Farm, Union County, Oregon, by Horizon Wind Energy Lake County is Working Hard to Build a Better Tomorrow Lake County is emerging as an example of what is not only possible, but as an example of what must be done, all across America. Lake County is developing it's natural resources of geothermal, wind, solar, hydro and bio-mass for the community's sustainable future, thereby creating not only energy independence, but tremendous economic development opportunities. Rural communities off the beaten path require viable economic development opportunities to support and justify businesses moving into the community and businesses need a viable work force. The Town of Lakeview and Lake County has been working with organizations like NWSEED (Sustainable Energy for Economic Development), The Energy Trust of Oregon, Sustainable Northwest, and SCOEDD (South Central Oregon Economic Development District), to accomplish these goals. The Geo-Heat Center at Oregon Institute of Technology in Klamath Falls, Oregon has been a world-wide leader in the study of Geothermal Energy and how to use it for economic development in communities like Lake County. At present the Town of Lakeview owns a geo-heating system that is saving the State of Oregon hundreds of thousands of dollars in heating costs for a minimum security Department of Corrections facility. Paisley, Oregon, with a great, proven, geothermal energy resource, is exploring it's possibilities for future economic development with AltaRock Energy, a leader in a new type of Enhanced Geothermal power generation, and doing a feasibility study for a geothermal heating system for their High School. Adel, Oregon, home of the Crump Geyser Hotsprings Area, is being studied by Nevada Geothermal Power for electric power generation Christmas Valley, in northern Lake County, with inexpensive land for homes, has prime development property available at a former USAF Backscatter Radar Base located on 2622 acres that may be soon be the site for the largest solar farm in the nation! Today, Lake County is moving toward becoming a substantial Eco-Community utilizing not only the geothermal waters for community-wide heating systems, including industrial parks, but is also developing a large-scale Geothermal and Bio-Mass electric generation as part of these plans. Lake County was hard hit by the decline of the timber industry at the end of the last century losing hundreds of jobs as lumber mills closed in both Lakeview and Paisley. Today, thanks to the Lake County Resource Initiative, a local grass roots organization, and other forward thinking citizens of Lake County and the State of Oregon, the lumber industry is making a comeback. On November 1, 2007 Collins Companies dedicated a 6.6 million dollar small diameter saw mill in Lakeview located at its Fremont Sawmill complex which has been a vital part of the county's economy since the 1940's. Collins has been a long time leader in sustainable forest management. They were awarded the highest possible designation by Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 1998, making their 75,000 acre Collins Lakeview Forest timber lands a “Well-Managed Forest.” Collins was recognised by NBC Evening news April 16, 2008 for their achievements in ecological forestry and Collins Product’s new line of particleboard — Collins Pine FreeForm™ — has just been chosen as one of the “Top-10 Green Building Products” at the sixth annual U.S. Green Building Council’s Conference in Chicago in November of 2007.
Collins is now working with Marubini Sustainable Energy to develop a Bio-mass Energy plant. Jim Walls, the Executive Director of the Lake County Resource Initiative is quoted as saying,
“Lake County is on a path toward leading the State of Oregon in renewable energy production. The building of a new small diameter sawmill and a biomass plant that serve as tools to restore forest health is a new way of doing business and one that will serve as a model for other communities across the country,”
A $20-million Lakeview Biomass Plant, which is still in the planning stages, will be built at the Lakeview sawmill. It is expected to annually produce about 13 megawatts of renewable energy, enough to power over 10,000 single-family homes. The Lakeview plant will be the first new biomass facility in Oregon since 1992 according to a news release from, Sustainable Northwest Build it and they will come! Lake County is a New Frontier! An Energy Frontier! We need "Energy Pioneers" with new ideas and fresh perspectives, ready to get their heads together and their hands dirty! Pioneering isn’t easy. Lots of people tried, went broke and moved back to the cities in the last land rush. You need a solid idea, a good business plan and the ability to “get ‘r done” to make it work anywhere…. Especially here.....Survival is a success story in Lake County. The advantage you have by locating your home or business here in Lake County is knowing that energy, the single most important commodity you can have as a home owner or a manufacturer is available, and more importantly, that the energy will be available to you tomorrow, (ideally, at rates you can afford, because it's produced right here from geothermal, solar, wind and bio-mass resources).
Lake County is full of Energy! Energy in our Renewable Resources and Energy in our People!
What are you interested in? Visit this page to see the demographics of Lakeview and Lake County. We’re getting ready, right now, for anything Geothermal. Greenhouses? Aquaculture? Food processing?
How about process heat for alcohol production, using local grain? Bio-diesel? A cattle feed lot? Meat processing facility? Feed mill? Land is available. Lake County is planning and zoning for your future right now! We have potential resources for wind farms here.. We have some of the highest number of solar days in the region too. (SLCO is working with a major wind and solar farm developer right now on a Lake County project.)
Want to build something? Need low cost land and the use of local pine and fir timber? Do you have a “green” product to manufacture? Need office space for a sales staff? Want to locate in a green community with green workers and green energy? Please consider Lake County Oregon. Many areas qualify for the Oregon Investment Advantage (which is an income tax credit program) and may also qualify as a Lake County Enterprise Zone, which allows property tax incentives. There are also many other Renewable Energy related programs from the Oregon Department of Energy, The Energy Trust of Oregon and the U.S. Department of Energy The welcome mat is out! Lake County has a developing Industrial Park with rail access. Land and buildings are available for sale and lease right now. One facility belongs to McFarland Door Manufacturing Company which outgrew this 13,000 sq.ft. plant with office on two acres, all set up for a wood shop business. Two new facilities have been built here this past year to take advantage of all this area has to offer. Lake County is working with the Town and South Central Oregon Economic Development District to bring Geothermal space heating into the park ASAP. Lake County has three building sites, very reasonably priced, and availiable right now, a 1.75 ac. site, a 3ac. site and a 3.5ac site waiting for your business! Contact us. Tell us what you’re thinking about and we’ll help you get the help and resources you need. Maybe you’re ready for that second home? How about an in-ground house that powers itself, heats itself and has a view that is as good as it gets? We have over 80 acres right now inside the city limits, of Lakeview, overlooking beautiful Goose Lake Valley, with southwest orientation, perfect for that dream! Perhaps you want a passive solar home in the country near the National Forest and overlooking a lake? We have land for that too. There is opportunity right now for all manner of workers. Our residents are crying for plumbers, brick masons, dry-wall contractors and more electricians… We have to hire many trades people from a hundred miles away because our people are so busy, and we have not even begun to boom! Want to open your own business? We have room in our Historical downtown for restaurants, boutiques, brew pubs, antique stores, book stores, health food stores and a Bed and Breakfast! What do you want to do? This is the place to do it in!
This is the beginning, the ground floor. Now is the time to consider your future and where you want to raise your children or the kind of place you want to live in when you retire…
Please contact us. Let us try to answer your questions and help you get the information you need to make the decision be part of our future. Come to Lake County Oregon and be part of the solution. | History of Sustainable Lake County Oregon March, 2008. Oil is above $110.00 per barrel, headed to $200! Gold is over $1000 an ounce and the dollar is in free fall..... Housing industry is in the toilet and now they are saying we can't be going into a depression just like they said we couldn't be going into a recession just a few months ago.
Damn poor time to start a new venture, right?
I read an editorial in Home Power Magazine by its founder, Joe Schwartz titled Potential in the Oct/Nov issue, (quoted at the top of the page) then a story about eco houses in Mosier, Oregon and said....,
" No, this is the time to do this!" Sustainable Lake County Oregon was just formed St.Patrick's Day, 2008 by a native son of Lake County, John R. Cogar. John graduated High School from Lakeview in 1968 and went on to Southern Oregon College and the University of Oregon majoring in Epistemology. On returning to Lakeview he briefly worked for the USFS and went on to open a real estate sales office for Strout Realty, Inc. Soon after he got his Broker's license he came to realize the potential for Geothermal Development and what it could mean to Lake County's future. He spent months doing research and finally went to the Town of Lakeview to explain how they could access money through the US Department of Energy for a Town Heating System. The Town Council looked at him like he was nuts! "Why we couldn't do that. It'd put Al Ramsey, (the Shell Oil Distributor) out of business.... That's not a good idea for government....but if you think it's such a good idea...Why don' t you do it your self?" Being young, and dumb and full of not knowing any better, John put together P.S.Ogden Power Company, named for the first mountain man who explored this part of Oregon. John brought together some of the finest minds in Geothermal. They designed a heating system, had financing and an economic development plan based on the local agricultural industry. After over a year of development and many public meetings, Ogden Power Company went back to the Town Council and asked for a franchise to solidify its position as necessary to becoming a utiliity, and proceed forward with its development plan. At about the same time, NW Natural Gas Co. was looking at Mt.Hood for possible Geothermal process heat for Portland, Oregon. Lakeview's Town Attorney called NWNG and ask if they would be able to have someone at the Town Council meeting in two weeks. They said OK without knowing why. That night, in a surprise move, Lakeview Town Council voted to give the franchise to NWNG who never applied for one, didn't know they were getting one, and really did not want one! NWNG stayed around for a year or so and walked away after ruining the hot water well at our swimming pool and saying geothermal wasn't "feasible" for Lakeview. John stepped away and went on to run a successful real estate business for 25 years and owned two manufactured home dealerships, one in Lakeview and one in Klamath Falls, helping thousands of people own their own homes. He developed manufactured home sites, built subdivisions, and sold more home sites in Lake County than any one else in the 1980's and 1990's. In the early 1990's he purchased the Heryford Building and listed it on the National Register of Historic Places. Historic Restoration has been his love for many years, but alternative energy utilization was always his passion! He had the first electric truck in Lake County, a 1989 Mazda, four wheel drive pick-up, with a gun rack in back! He was the first to make bio-fuel and run his Dodge Dually, his utility bucket truck and his back hoe with Green energy........ He's paid his dues........... Now is the time to move forward........ All the elements are in place for the changes he saw 30 years ago to happen now! He proposed a geothermal heating system and a biomass plant. They were not done then, but they are being done today! Downtown Lakeview Geothermal District Heating System 2008
BACKGROUND (This is part of a Google RE<C Grant Application)
PROPOSAL: Google $750,000 loan.
Earlier this year I approached the Town of Lakeview asking them if they had plans to do a community wide geothermal district heating system. Ray Sims, the Town manager told me the Town did not want to be in the utility business and encouraged me to pursue the concept as a private for-profit business.
I was born and raised here in Lakeview and have been involved in trying to get a district heating system for my community since 1977, so the concept was not a new one for me. I own the largest commercial building in Lakeview which was built in 1913 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Buildings. I was a Real Estate Broker for 25 years and I know my community is on the verge of disaster. We have already lost clothing stores, restaurants, saloons, a drug store and a thrift store.
Skyrocketing energy costs will cause many more businesses to close soon if there is no help.
I contacted the Renewable Energy Resource Center at Oregon Institute of Technology and started working closely with one of the co-founders of that organization, an engineer named Bob Rodgers. Bob is a brilliant fellow with a long resume in renewable energy.
We developed a plan and wrote a grant application to USDA 9006 Rural Renewable Energy Grant program in June of 2008. We made it through the first cut at the State of Oregon USDA office level and our application was forwarded to Washington DC for their consideration.
Unfortunately, for our community, we found out this week we were not funded in this cycle.
We need about Two Million Dollars for this project. We are looking for a $750,000 loan to be paid back to Google from revenues.
The rest of the funds will come from the sale of State and Federal tax credits...(when the US Congress passes the Energy Tax Credit extension) and from the sale of carbon credits.
(We would hope Google would purchase these incentives as part of our support package.)
The state of Oregon also has a Small Scale Energy Loan Program and we would work with the Energy Trust of Oregon, the Blue Sky Program and Bonneville Power. We would form a federal, state and local partnership. We would foster long term, sustainable, economic development opportunity and business retention in Lake County through proper management of our renewable energy resources.
Without swamping you with detail, the project would replace about 150,000 gallons of heating oil fuel and 8800 tons of carbon per year in the first phase of the system by drilling geothermal production and re-injection wells on 40 acres of development land I own adjacent to the Down Town Business District of Lakeview. We expect to pump up to 2500 gallons per minute of 110' hot water. This water would be run through a heat exchanger and re-injected. The clean, heated water would be run in service lines to connect the high end users in the community like the County Court House, commercial buildings, churches,the US Post Office, the Library, four schools and our Hospital.
We project (once the system is paid for) we can provide energy at 50% of the current cost of heating oil, and Lakeview, (because of its remote location) has the highest cost of heating oil and fuel in the State of Oregon.
The economics are here...At $4.00 a gallon oil and 150,000 gallons would equal $600,000 a year cost which relates to a 3.3 year payback of a Two Million Dollar investment, (excluding tax advantages and carbon credits)!
My concept is to form a sustainable, community owned, economic development corporation, (organized as private enterprise) that will be able to control this wonderful renewable energy resource for the betterment of the citizens of Lakeview long after I am recycled into compost! I have the support of the Town of Lakeview, of the Lake County Commissioners and the community in general for this project and can provide documentation and research on request.
I need your help to accomplish this goal.
I look at your other projects you've funded and I realize that you are trying to really help transform great ideas into feasibility. This little project is more like plumbing a outhouse....... But every step counts. To us this is a very important deal! The people here are holding on by their teeth and we are doing our best to “boot strap” our way into the future. We need help. For a very little bit of money on your scale of doing business, we could get our wells drilled and engineering done so we could put the rest of the package together and Google could point to this success story of being instrumental in the development of the “Renewable Energy Capital of Oregon! Please contact me and lets work together to make this happen!! The next column is a brief description of a concept for an eco-industry that would utilize local agricultural products, local labor and locally produced energy as an economic development focus Lake County. This is the basic concept developed by PS Ogden Power Company 30 years ago. It makes even better sense today than it did then! | Full Cycle Energy Utilization An Integrated Meat, Feed, Fuel and Fertilizer Production Facility using Geothermal Energy in an Agri-Business Industrial Park as a basis for Economic Development. Agricultural practices in the rural west have remained markedly unchanged for over a hundred years. Hay is cut, baled and stacked. Most of the hay is sold, loaded on trucks and exported. Local cattle are fed some of the hay over the winter, turned out to pasture in the summer, rounded up in the fall and sold to a middle man who ships them out to be "finished" in a feed lot prior to being processed into boxed beef somewhere far away from the community, then today, that meat is shipped back to our Oregon supermarkets. This agri-business industrial park concept involves integration of agricultural resources and businesses in a Geothermal Energy based complex. The system produces branded, value added finished products, from local raw materials, using local labor, produced at the collection site, for local consumption and for export in a more efficient manner. The synergistic result is a dramatic gain in profit returned to the farmer, the rancher and the community from the net energy efficiency of tying these systems together. How does this work? Geothermal energy is an abundant renewable resource present in many parts of the rural west associated with hay and cattle production. (All of the systems talked about in this concept are off-the-shelf technology, readily available for utilization and most have been available for the thirty years since this idea was developed). No one has ever before combined these systems together. A geothermal production complex basically consists of a production well, a heat exchanger and a reinjection well. (This is exactly what the Town of Lakeview now has that heats the Oregon DOC minimum security facility.) Geothermal energy is unique in that the same resource can be used many times, for different processes, once it is extracted from the earth. The highest temperature waters are used to generate electricity, refrigeration and binary power from the heat energy being extracted. The water is "cascaded" down to secondary uses like dehydration and process water that use lower temperatures, then used for space heating, green housing and aquaculture prior to returning to the heat exchanger to be reheated. Renewable geothermal resources, and the fuel this system produces, can potentially provide all the energy necessary to power this agri-business facility, the local farming, ranching and logging industries, and eliminate importaiton of vast amounts of petro-fuels, (and coal/natural gas/hydro-electricity), thereby drastically shrinking our carbon footprint! What is the facility? This holistic system consists of six main components all linked together using locally grown agricultural products, and eliminating each other's waste by turning each waste product into a resource. The Old Timers called this, Waste Not....Want Not The first link would be a Geothermal Based feed mill to more efficiently process, transport and market local alfalfa hay and feed stock. At present alfalfa hay production requires a field to be left dry, out of production, for 7 to 10 days and requires mulitple passes with expensive harvesting equipment. A geothrmal feed dehydration mill would potentially allow the farmer to be back in production in about three days and eliminate the need for two out of five present steps. This would yield more tons to the acre at lower costs. The Geothermal Feed mill would produce a higher value, "branded" cubed feed product, that would allow one truck to transport the equivalent of three truck loads of baled hay to market by grinding the hay, dehydrating it with geothermal energy and mixing it with scientifically engineered organic additives. (This would provide sales for other high value crops which might be grown in the area for which there is no market at present, because there is no processing facility able to process them into feed). The mill will produce the food products for the feed lot needed to finish the cattle without the need to import expensive corn. Next link would be a Geothermal Packing Plant or meat processing facility to produce branded beef products, on the local level, with local labor, allowing the transportation of about 300 processed animals on one truck, (powered by low cost bio-fuel) verses about 80 live cattle shipped out today. This would keep the profit here and provide local jobs. Geothermal refrigeration, binary power and process water would be used. Carbon dioxide recovered from the waste management system would prolong the viable shelf life of the boxed beef product. The next link would be a geothermal waste management system to produce fuel and fertilizer from the waste products of the feed mill, the feed lot and the meat processing facility Geothermal waters would heat the digester resulting in a 20% increase in yield.The fuel, methane, could be used on site for the ethanol distillation, (replacing petro-fuels), or generate electricity with gas fired turbines or used to power the heavy equipment of the farmers, the ranchers and the loggers that produce the raw materials for the agri-business industrial park. . (A 1977 study (DOE proposal ED 113077, Nov. 30, 1977) showed a 10,000 head feed lot like this one, would produce methane equal to approximately 2.7 million gallons of gasoline per year. At today's rates moving to $4.00 per gal that is equal to $108 Million dollars almost free just for collecting the waste and processing it! Methane is a clean burning fuel that has no carbon as its base. Waste products of methane combustion are oxygen and water. The liquid "waste product" of methane production is natural CO2 which would be used in a variety of ways and high grade fertilizer which would be returned to the farmers, (can be applied with existing sprinkler systems), thereby increasing productivity and lowering costs. Solids would be dehydrated, using geothermal, and sold as a branded "Organic" Steer Manure product for export. The next link would be a Geothermal Ethanol production facility possibly using locally grown grain, sugar beets and potatoes as feed stock for a geothermal vacuum distillation plant burning methane! Geothermal would be used here to "cook" the mash eliminating petro-fuel, and geothermal binary energy could be used to produce vacuum, allowing distillation at lower temperatures, again saving fuel costs. The waste product of distillation is a high quality resource called "brewer's yeast" or DDGS, (distillers dry grain stock), which would be cycled into the feed mill system. We all know the demand for bio-fuels is far outstripping production and the government has made substantial incentives availiable for building bio-fuel plants. Another potential fuel system might be based on Bio-diesel production processing oil produced by the feed mill pressing equipment for soybeans, mustard, rapeseed and others. (Waste product of "pressing" is a high quality feed stock for the cube mill!) Waste cooking oil collected from the region and animal fat from the slaughter facility also can be used to make bio-fuels and solvents and soaps. Even more exciting are the ongoing studies on Algae Bio-Diesel that would use the carbon dioxide and fertilizer from the methane production that could yield up to 10,000 to 30,000 gallons of fuel per acre, (depending on the study you read and the process used). John Sheehan, an energy analyst with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden, Colo., believes these goals are within reach. “There is no other resource that comes even close in magnitude to the potential for making oil,” says Sheehan, who worked in the lab’s algae program before it was shut down by the Department of Energy. A host of other businesses might want to locate in a community where such a manufacturing facility were located including the naturals like green housing and aquaculture. But others like food processing plants needing dehydration, cooking or refrigeration might come to use the low cost energy produced from this system. Others might come to use the available hides to make leather or bio-diesel glycerin to make soaps or cosmetics. This facility would cut the costs of agricultural production and dramatically raise profits to the producers through branded marketing, efficient transportation and low cost locally produced fuel and fertilizer sources. The bottom line is a facility like this one would provide local, family wage jobs that are needed to have a sustainable community. Family wage jobs mean jobs for others in the community like contractors to build houses and teachers in the school system. They, in turn, provide jobs for the people in the restaurants and sporting goods stores. Economic development is not an option. It is a requirement if a community is to survive. Without focused economic development young people and working people have to move away, so the town becomes a bedroom community for a retirement home, loses its stores and sees its downtown boarded up. A community, looking to its future, must be able to control its own energy costs, put its people to work processing its availiable resources and sell value-added finished products This creates a Sustainable Community in control of its own destiny! ____________________________________________________ Full Cycle Energy Utilization is copyright and Patent Pending. All rights reserved. ______________________________________________________________ This is in the concept stage. We welcome ideas and feedback. We are also seeking individuals and companies interested in participating in development, building, financing and operating such a facility. Be Part of the Solution Build it and they will come! People realize this is the time to make change happen, and the internet is key. Like minded people from any where in the world can see what is about to happen in remote Lakeview,Oregon, and choose to be part of this Sustainable Alternative Energy Community. What was our greatest obstacle is now our greatest asset! Our very remoteness has given us untouched beauty and allowed us the time to do this right! Many things and people are coming together to transform what locals once saw as a dying saw mill town into a vibrant community of the future! The State of Oregon and the Federal Government both recognize Lakeview as a target for renewable energy resource development. Real credit goes to the Town of Lakeview and the Lake County Commissioners, their Planning Commissions, and citizens like Jim Walls, of the Lake County Resource Initiative and Anderson Engineering for their forward thinking and can-do attitude. Lake County Wants Your Business |
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