Up next on Eco Company, Renewable Energy from Deep Inside the Earth.
What got me into interested in geothermal energy was the fact that it is a renewable energy source.
So I want to be part of something of the future that's going to have lasting impact.
We go inside the largest geothermal installation in the world and see how steam is harnessed to power cities.
Then, searching for marine life, waiting in at low tide.
We're going to be looking for a variety of organisms.
We have sea urchins, crabs, hermit crabs, sculpins, mussels, sea stars, snails.
Ooh, that's a lot.
These teens are gathering marine creatures for an educational lab.
You'll be surprised at what they find.
And taking things into their own hands, grabbing shovels and digging in.
We are planning a ruminous californica, which is also called a coffee berry.
Most of these here, they've died off in the area because of invasive species.
Restoring a natural habitat. It's all in a day's work for these guys.
All that and more on Eco Company.
Starting right now.
Hi guys, thanks for tuning in to Eco Company. I'm Vincent.
And I'm Jaden.
We've seen a lot of renewable and sustainable energy options on our show.
Wind and solar, of course, but also things like hydrogen fuel cell and laser nuclear fusion.
Even turning garbage into electricity. But today, we explore one of the oldest, steam.
Using steam to create power has been traced back almost 2,000 years.
But it hasn't become a viable power source on the large scale until the middle of the 20th century.
Jaden visits the largest facility in the world to see how it works.
Steam power. It's been around in various forms since the 1600s.
It's powered locomotives, river boats, and even automobiles.
The Stanley steamer was green before green was cool.
Then Henry Ford and his assembly line began turning out cheaper gas-powered cars.
Today, 90 miles north of San Francisco, California, steam naturally puffs up from the ground.
And a power network operated by Kalkine, called the geysers, is using that steam on a scale never seen before.
Did you know the temperature of the core of the earth is believed to be about the same as the sun?
Today we're here to see how they are taking that heat and creating renewable energy to power our lives.
Let's go learn more.
The geysers is made up of 15 power plants, scattered around 46 square miles.
We have approximately about 83 miles of steam line, 325 steam wells, and roughly 65 injection wells.
And this kind of energy is called geothermal. Operations manager, Josh Wade.
Geothermal, geo-earth, you know, thermal heat, and so what we're doing is we're taking, you know, heat from the earth and converting that energy into electrical energy.
Geothermal energy is both old and new. It's as old as the formation of the earth, but only in the past century has it been harnessed on a much larger scale.
We weren't the first, but we definitely are the largest.
The first production plant went into service in 1960. Mark Wigs is the steam field operations manager.
The geysers was up here before that. It was actually a resort, and they were utilizing that steam for heat and electricity in the resort.
Teddy Roosevelt actually came to the geysers, so I was around the turn of the century, so it's been up here for quite a while.
In order to capture the energy of the steam, water is injected into the ground, but not just any water.
We pump treated wastewater from Sonoma County and Lake County into the ground, and when it gets into the ground, it becomes very hot.
It actually boils. We put it into the ground through injectors.
They're basically wells we've dug into the ground up to 10,000 feet into the ground.
That water goes in, it touches that hot rock that's naturally occurring underneath the earth.
Once it touches that hot rock, it boils and it turns into steam.
So here we are in the main control station. What goes on at these stations right now?
This is the generation desk Jerry's monitoring the power plants.
Presently we're generating about 690 megawatts, so he's keeping an eye on the plants and the generation leaving the geysers.
Over here on your right, this is Harry Beasley. He's taking care of the steam field itself,
monitoring all the production wells and injection wells, and working with our maintenance departments as needed to help keep everything running at 100%.
Cameras, gauges, monitors, radio traffic all have to be closely watched.
Geothermal energy may be green, but it's also hot and pressurized.
If you've ever seen a radiator over heat and the steam sprays out of it, well underground the steam is under pressure, and as we bring it to the surface, it has a very strong velocity.
So it looks like that smoke coming up from the ground over there, what is that?
That's not smoke, that's what's called a fumarole. Fumarole is basically where groundwater has gotten in and come in contact with the hot rock and turned into steam, and then found a fissure or a crack in the ground that allows it to come up to the surface.
I've also noticed it smells kind of like rotten eggs here.
Yeah, that's not rotten eggs. What you're smelling is hydrogen sulfide or H2S. It's naturally occurring. It's something that's coming up out of the ground with the steam.
As the largest geothermal power installation in the world, it produces a lot of power.
On average we're producing about 725 megawatt, which will run a city the size of San Francisco.
California's geography allows it to tap into geothermal energy because California is located on the seismically and volcanically active ring of fire that circles the Pacific Ocean.
That's where underground heat is closer to the surface. The better drilling technology could open other parts of the world to this clean fuel, and that can be exciting.
I'm a petroleum engineering student at Colorado School of Mines.
Brett Tucker is an intern at the Geysers.
What got me into interested in geothermal energy was the fact that it is a renewable energy source, whereas a petroleum engineering student, not a renewable resource.
However, the geothermal is, so I want to be part of something of the future that's going to have lasting impact in the future.
There really is no harmful side effect, and it is renewable because as long as we have water, as long as we have the heat in the earth, we can continue to make electrical energy.
Why aren't there more geothermal plants right now?
It's all hot underneath our feet, no matter where you stand.
Like I said though, it's harder to get to in certain places because of the distance.
We've made great strides in advancements in technology and being able to drill a little bit deeper and get to different reservoirs that we couldn't get to before.
So yeah, I think there's a bright future for geothermal.
And geothermal will continue to make a difference.
We have one earth. We need to be good stewards of that earth.
So the onus is on us to make wise decisions now.
Coming up, looking for marine life.
Teens wading into tide pools to find organisms for their lab.
We have sea urchins, crabs, hermit crabs, sculpins.
Muscles, sea stars, snails, woo, that's a lot.
They're mentors in an environmental education program. We'll learn all about it.
And later, young eco warriors. They're grabbing shovels and digging in.
Hands on. You're not stuck in a classroom. Just looking at a paper. You're actually looking at the plants and seeing how they feel and you know the smell of it.
They're working to restore a riparian habitat. It's all in a day's work for these guys.
There's a lot more eco company. Still to come.
Welcome back to Eco Company.
In our next story, a group of teens are getting their feet wet.
They're wading into tide pools looking for marine life.
Our own Athena waits in two to see what it's all about.
We're about to meet some teens who love the outdoors.
In fact, they're here today exploring tide pools looking for marine life.
Let's go catch up with them.
They aren't old enough to vote, but these San Francisco area high school students are already leaders.
I've always been really interested in environmental science, and then I worked a lot with kids when I was younger and growing up.
And so a team just seemed kind of like a perfect fit and something I'd be really into.
I heard about this program where you can help kids and expand your knowledge about nature.
So it interested me a lot, and I wanted to do it.
Separate time for the mission! Go!
Okay, it looks like fun and games, and it is.
But while these younger kids are recreating an undersea food chain,
their teenage instructors are sneaking in some important lessons.
The world right now is going through a lot of big, different environmental issues,
and I think it's super important that as kids grow up, we know about this stuff and learn just what's going on
and what possibly we can do to help it.
The teens leading these seaside nature classes are part of a special Nature Bridge program.
Nature Bridge is an environmental education nonprofit, and our mission is to foster environmental literacy
to sustain our planet.
Carly Cowman is the Team Program Manager.
Team is a program of Nature Bridge, stands for Teen Environmental Education Mentorship,
and it's an environmental education and leadership internship for high school kids.
And many of the teens come back year after year to participate.
Today, they're on a special mission.
We're here for a collecting trip.
We're at Team. We have a marine lab that we take care of that kids go
and they get to see different marine animals and interact with them.
And so we're out here gathering specimens for that.
This is the lab's indoor tide pool, or touch tank, where kids can safely see and handle creatures
in what's a pretty good imitation of their natural ecosystem.
The habitat needs new residents now and then, because, face it, even invertebrates have to eat,
just ask Carmen De Leon, the lab steward.
So this is a regular opportunity that we engage in to help our Team Interns students
gain professional skills in field biology.
And we're here to collect because, as you might imagine, invertebrates do prey upon each other
in our little ecosystem, even in captivity.
Occasionally, we do need to replenish that supply.
What's on this list that you've got here? What are we looking for today?
Oh, so today, we're going to be looking for a variety of organisms.
We have sea urchins, crabs, hermit crabs, sculpins.
Team members are divided into groups, and each group gets a kind of tightly grocery list.
They've got mussels, sea stars, snails.
Ooh, that's a lot. And everyone has their favorite.
I really like finding the starfish. That's what my group is entirely finding,
just because they're really colorful and fun and fun to do.
Is it hard to find them, or are they easy to find?
They're pretty hard to find. We've only found about five so far,
but it's very rewarding when you do find them.
My favorite would probably be the sculpin, because they could change colors to camouflage
really well with their environment.
It's a pretty big talent for such a small fish. In fact, the point of this program is to grow talent.
I personally think that you can make a stronger impact in your own community.
So I like to think that we're kind of building these strong environmental leaders
through team who can go back to their home communities and make a change.
And that message is being received, loud and clear.
It's so important for kids to really know just what's going on in the world around them and the environment.
Why do you guys think that this is shaped like a pyramid?
Why are there fewer consumers and there are producers?
I feel like there's a big disconnect just with how we grow up a lot of the times
and then the natural world and our environment.
I think so many people that we've each haven't ever seen the ocean before.
So this is a slug.
This is a slug. The important about this animal is the ecology.
They, until about two or three years ago, we would never find them here.
But as the climate changes and our oceans aren't warming,
we find animals that haven't been in these oceans or these seas
moving up from southern locations. And this is one of the newest arrivals.
I hope that when our interns leave team, they feel comfortable with themselves.
They feel comfortable being outside. They feel like they found their voice.
Team has been really good in just teaching you how to be flexible
because when you're managing a group of kids, sometimes with a partner,
sometimes on your own, like you never know what's going to happen.
And why is what they're doing important?
I mean, I think it's just important in any situation to upkeep your environment.
It's part of the natural world and it's not really our place to be destroying that
and we should be appreciating it.
So we can pass on the knowledge to younger generations because growing up,
they need to know what we're going through at this point in time
and the best way to go out there and teach them first hand.
Everything's interconnected, so this might just be one beach,
but in a broader perspective, this beach is connected to the whole world.
So it's really important to take care of all the little places so that the whole world could be healthy.
Along with teaching kids, it just makes you feel good about yourself.
And when young people grasp life lessons like those,
the adults who work with them marvel at the change
and wonder who's inspiring who.
There's so much fun. I love my job every day.
I go to work and I'm like, "Oh my gosh, I'm working right now and I love this. This is so great!"
So, how do you get to spend the day outside on a school day?
It's simple. Dig some holes and plant some shrubs and trees.
Add in some drip irrigation and you've got yourself an outdoor classroom.
We'll meet up with a group of teens doing just that, coming up next on Eco Company.
How many times have you wanted to be outside rather than stuck in a classroom?
Well, we discovered some teens lucky enough to do just that.
It's an eco lesson you just can't get from a book.
Vincent rolls up his sleeves to lend a hand.
We've got some oaks, we've got some sycamores, we've got some box elders.
It's a brisk and blustery day in northern California.
These teens are ready to get to work.
These high school students are part of the Center for Land-based Learning SLUISE program.
SLUISE is an acronym and it stands for Student and Land Owner Education and Watershed Stewardship.
It's a program for high school students focused on agricultural and environmental science.
And it all happens out in the field.
We're out here along the Sycamore SLU where these eco warriors woke up right in early to come out here and do some work.
Let's go see what it's all about.
It's a day for getting close to nature and getting your hands dirty.
We're trying to rebuild a natural habitat.
Well, just like restoring native species and plants, trees and shrubs.
Matt Lechmeyer is SLUISE program coordinator.
Today Kalusa High School is at Davis Home Ranch, assisting with a project that started in 2009.
The ranch is bordered by the Sacramento River and the Clusan National Wildlife.
So it's the significant connectivity between the Clusan Basin Drain and the Sacramento River.
Davis Ranch's project manager, Emily James, says that they take that responsibility seriously.
The current family owners have a huge interest in conservation and integrating sustainable farm practices within their conventional farm.
It's a several thousand acre property.
And we are planting hedgerows on the edges that aren't as productive for rice and tomato production or walnut production.
And they're more valuable as wildlife habitat instead.
Most of these here, like, they've died off in the area because invasive species, like ones that take over the area and take up all the minerals in the background.
Audubon, California is a partner in the project.
Restoration project manager Matthew Danielchek explains the goal.
We are planting these today to bring back some habitat and some wildlife to the Central Valley.
We've lost a lot of it over the last hundred, two hundred years and we've discovered that we can put native plants on the edges of farms and between fields.
And that's enough to bring a lot of wildlife back.
So Yasmin, what are we planting here today?
We are planting a ruminous californica, which is also called a coffee berry.
We've seen old aerial photos of sycamore slough and there used to be a lot more trees along here.
And it's called sycamore slough, right, for goodness' sake.
So we really would like to see some big woody vegetation to provide habitat and food for raptors, for pollinators and other birds.
Those raptors, those pollinators also help the farmers.
Most of the crops need to be pollinated and the farmers need to control pests, which the raptors do very well.
So the natural wildlife will help reduce the need for insecticides and poisons.
These guys are getting the job done.
Thirty plants done already.
We do programs like this to help the community and help the county around us.
I also think it's a great opportunity for students to get out of the classroom and meet professionals in the field.
Kind of hear about their stories about how they got to their job, what they like, and why they're out there every day doing it.
Learning new things and getting to get dirty and not have to go to school.
Hands-on, you know, stuck in the classroom and just looking at a paper.
You're actually looking at the plants and seeing how they feel and you know the smell of it.
Yeah, it's a lot more fun than sitting in the desk.
Right.
It's more hands-on.
The Davis Home Ranch provides a great example for students to understand that environmental stewardship is not mutually exclusive with agriculture.
It doesn't have to be one or the other.
You can actually have productive land that is also functional as a habitat for wildlife.
So I'm putting a hole in the drip irrigation tube so I can put it in the mittering and it can put water throughout the entire system.
When the trees and shrubs are all planted, they lay drip irrigation to provide water for the first three years.
So they don't die in the dry winter or the dry summer ahead.
I really enjoy working with high school age kids because they're on the verge of choosing really important things.
Like where they go to school and what they study and what they want to do with the rest of their lives is really gratifying for me.
So they can actually understand what the possibilities are for them after high school.
As for the students, it may be cold and windy, but they feel good about what they're doing.
I love it, actually.
I like planting the plants. I think that's fun.
We rely on our environment whether we choose to acknowledge that or not in all ways.
That's where our food comes from. That's where the clean air and clean water that we require for health comes from.
And so the more youth that understand that, the better off we are in managing our resources in a sustainable way.
Because of us, some people won't see what we see today. Like most of these trees around us, they're not going to be around.
But since we're out here helping, there might be a chance that you can see some of this beauty out here.
It's all in a day's work for these eco warriors.
Well, that's a wrap for this edition of Eco Company. Thanks for tuning in.
For more information on stories on the show, just go to our website eco-company.tv.
And remember, you too can be a part of the solution. We'll see you back here next time on Eco Company.
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