WASHINGTON -- Geothermal projects in Nevada received about one-third of the $338 million in grants under the economy recovery package, including projects in Gabbs, in northwestern Nye County, and in Silver Peak, Alum and Fish Lake Valley in Esmeralda County.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., announced the Silver State will receive more than $90 million for 25 projects expected to make geothermal power more readily available and create nearly 1,100 jobs.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, during a press conference with Reid, said the investment is expected to more than triple Nevada's geothermal capacity in the next five years.

"Geothermal industry has enormous potential to power our economy. It's renewable energy and its base load energy so it can be counted on day in and day out," Chu said.

Nevada is second to California in U.S. geothermal resources, with 15 geothermal power plants in operation with a capacity of 264 megawatts. But a profile by the U.S. Department of Energy notes a vast amount of the state's geothermal energy potential remains untapped.

"Geothermal resources of moderate-to-low temperatures are becoming increasingly viable sources for electricity generation due to innovations in geothermal power plant technologies. Nevada and the surrounding region have the potential to become one of the most productive resources areas for geothermal energy utilization," the DOE profile said.

"Once this is done we're going to have 60 power plants producing more electricity than Hoover Dam," Reid said.

Most of the geothermal energy is being harnessed in Churchill and Pershing counties, just east of Reno. Several grants were awarded for projects in that area in Dixie Valley, New York Canyon, Rye Patch, Pyramid Lake and Beowawe.

But some projects will get under way farther south.

* GeoGlobal Energy, based in Chevy Chase, Md., received a $4 million DOE grant, the company will put up another $3.3 million for a project in Gabbs. GeoGlobal Energy bid $458,305 for five parcels totaling 19,163 acres in an auction of U.S. Bureau of Land Management geothermal leases last July.

GeoGlobal proposes to use several well-established technology from mining that are novel to geothermal exploration to locate resources along permeable faults.

Faults will be targeted with slim wells with a goal of discovering a deep geothermal system away from the range front in Gabbs Valley, expected to have temperatures from 300 to 500 degrees with a capacity of generating 30 megawatts of power, the DOE said.

The DOE notes, "Gabbs Valley is a blind prospect in an actively-faulted, sedimentary basin with a very large geothermal heat anomaly in rural Nye and Mineral counties."

* Sierra Geothermal Power Inc., based in Olympia, Wash., was awarded $5 million in DOE grants, to which the company will add $7.35 million for projects in Silver Peak and Alum.

The three-phase project in Silver Peak will attempt to validate a variety of innovative exploration and drilling technology to accurately characterize the geothermal site and reduce project risk.

A hyperspectral imaging survey will map thermal abnormalities and minerals that indicate geothermal activity. Wells will be drilled to 1,000 feet. Two- and three-dimensional geophysical modeling will be used to project an image of the subsurface which will be combined with temperature data to prioritize drill locations.

The DOE notes said, "An independent assessment of the geothermal resource at Silver Peak concluded that commercial temperatures are likely at economically drillable depths and that the Silver Peak resource could support a power plant with a capacity of 15 megawatts at the 90 percent probability level and 42 megawatts at the 50 percent probability level."

The Alum project includes surface and near surface investigations and subsurface geophysical surveys and modeling.

A hyperspectral imaging survey will be used to map thermal abnormalities and minerals indicating geothermal activity. Gradient wells will be drilled to 1,000 feet. A three dimensional data set will be used to project an image of the subsurface, which will be combined with temperature and seismic data to prioritize drill locations. Four sites will be drilled testing a coiled-tube rig in a geothermal field. Extended flow tests will conducted on producible wells to confirm the geothermal resource.

Sierra Geothermal Power Inc. President and Chief Executive Officer Gary Thompson, in a press release, said, "As both projects are drill ready we anticipate quickly utilizing this grant funding to bring us closer to our goal of becoming an independent producer of geothermal power by 2012."

Sierra Geothermal Power was the successful bidder on 3,737 acres in geothermal leases at an Aug. 2007 BLM auction.

* The University of Kansas Center for Research Inc. received a $2.4 million DOE grant, which will be combined with a $1.13 million contribution from the applicant. The objective is to complete a three-phase program at the Emigrant geothermal prospect and adjacent areas of the Playa and Hot Box geothermal prospects, along the eastern margin of northern Fish Lake Valley.

The DOE summary of the project said, "this program is designed to provide valuable new subsurface information about one of the nation's arguably most promising, high temperate, geothermal targets."

Until now, the Emigrant geothermal prospect has been tested by shallow, exploration wells, the DOE said. The project would use innovative two dimensional and three dimensional reconstructions.