| Geothermal Resources "Tapped" for Construction of Warner Creek Correctional Facility (WCCF) |
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| WCCF is located in Lakeview, Oregon |
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Town of Lakeview Heat Exchangers
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September 2009 marks the fourth year that Warner Creek Correctional Facility (WCCF), located in Lakeview, Oregon, has been open. It also marks the fourth year that WCCF has been saving $228,000 a year by using geothermal energy. The geothermal system is a unique feature of this Department of Corrections (DOC) facility, using natural energy to provide heat and hot water to the prison.
The town of Lakeview and DOC took advantage of Business Energy Tax Credit (BETC) incentives through a program administered by the Oregon Department of Energy and partnered with Technology’s Geo Heat Center to construct the geothermal facility at WCCF. The system was oversized in order to provide the opportunity for Lakeview or other entities to utilize the already constructed geothermal resources.
The initial cost of geothermal system was $1.24M, which included costs for design, construction, and future repair and maintenance. From utility billings, the DOC knows that WCCF saves an average of $19,000 per month using geothermal heating instead of propane. This equates to a total savings of $228,000 per year in heating costs alone. The average WCCF cost per square foot is 2.7-cents per month per sq ft. So, the equivalent cost for a 2,000 square foot home would be $54 per month for all heating and hot water for a family of six.
The DOC portion of the system can deliver enough hot water to keep up with 400 inmates showering, laundry needs, kitchen demands for hot water and also heat a 117,000 square foot facility to comfortable levels when the outside temperature is below zero.
How geothermal works: Heat is collected from water that has been warmed by natural geothermal sources deep inside the Earth. The geothermally heated water is pumped from a well and piped into a heat exchange unit where the heat is then transferred to the prison’s heating water-loop system. Once the heat has been “used,” the geothermal water is re-injected back into the ground.
The combination of the heat exchange unit and the heated water-loop system delivers natural and efficient energy to the prison where it is used to provide hot water for domestic and space heating purposes. However, WCCF is not completely reliant on geothermal heat. The facility is also fitted with a propane fired back-up boiler system that is capable of providing 100 percent of the required heat under the most extreme conditions, should problems ever arise with the geothermal system.
In 2008 WFFC was awarded the Oregon State Energy Efficient Design (SEED) award for being "a model of energy efficiency."
http://www.oregon.gov/ENERGY/CONS/SEED/SEED_Awards.shtml
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