My part of the world gets way too much wind along with plenty of sunshine. It also has some unusual geology which allows the earth’s inner heat to come closer to the surface.
Our wind, despite the window-rattling power of its gusts, is too sporadic to attract much commercial interest in developing this form of “green energy.”
But solar and geothermal energy projects have been getting some attention, not all of it positive. No matter how green the energy source, a development can still generate opposition long before it generates electricity.
Solar has already attracted substantial investment with the 8.2-megawatt SunEdison plant in the San Luis Valley, but further development will likely require more transmission capacity — and the proposed route over La Veta Pass faces opposition from a billionaire landownerr, while local ranchers have questions about one generating site.
The San Luis Valley is part of a bigger geologic structure known as the Rio Grande Rift, which extends south through New Mexico to El Paso, Texas, and north into the upper Arkansas Valley of Colorado.
Put simply, there’s a sunken valley floor flanked by mountain ranges. The earth’s crust is being pulled apart here; a geologist friend told me that “If you wonder what the Atlantic Ocean looked like 70 million years ago, before North America separated from Europe, just look around.”
The process means that there are faults — big systems of cracks — in the earth’s crust along the sides of the rift. This allows molten rock (magma) to come closer to the surface. If it gets to the surface, it’s a volcano, but just getting close often produces a hot spring.
Thus there are hot springs along the Rio Grande Rift, among them Poncha Springs (which sit east of the town), Valley View on the east side of the northern San Luis Valley, and Mt. Princeton along Chalk Creek southwest of Buena Vista.
The same earth energy that produces hot springs might also be put to work generating electricity with a geothermal power plant, and the federal Bureau of Land Management has proposed leasing some geothermal rights in the Mt. Princeton Area, in line with an Obama administration directive to support green energy.
However, this hasn’t exactly thrilled residents along Chalk Creek, who have succeeded in delaying the lease, citing a variety of reasons.
But it should be noted that the Chalk Creek valley is hardly pristine. A few miles west of the hot springs there was a century of mining as evidenced by the ghost towns of Alpine, St. Elmo, Romley and Hancock. A coal-fired narrow-gauge railroad served those towns and continued west through the Alpine Tunnel to Gunnison. A dam and hydro-electric plant provided electric power to gold dredges in Taylor Park.
In other words, it was an industrial zone that has, over time, become a scenic rural residential and resort area. And one where there are some valid concerns about further developing the geothermal energy that some residents and businesses already use.
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