The City of Alturas, California and the surrounding areas in Modoc County have extensive geothermal resources. This resource provides a sustainable heat source that does not burn fossil fuels or use large amounts of electricity, puts the heating costs under local control, brings revenue into the local area, and provides cost savings for the Modoc Joint Unified School District (MJUSD).
MJUSD has been using geothermal resources to heat portions of their schools since the early 1990s. In 2018, they completed a project to construct the necessary piping and other components to provide a functional geothermal heating system for all the school buildings. Funding was not available at that time to complete all building retrofits, so the system operated at only 60 percent of its potential.
The California Energy Commission funded this project to construct and complete additional building retrofits and control system installations at three school campuses to optimize the heating system performance. Since the geothermal resource still had additional capacity, this project also extended the geothermal piping to the site of the new Modoc Medical Center, allowing that facility to connect to the geothermal resource.
The system, which is now fully operational in all the school buildings, because of this project, is estimated to save MJUSD approximately $85,000 during the 2019-2020 heating season, up from $70,000 saved in the 2018-2019 heating season. An additional savings of $3,000 annually will come from the use the fiber optic cable, installed for the geothermal system and used for their computer network connection between the schools.
Once the Modoc Medical Center system is online, the center will save approximately $16,000 annually by using the geothermal system instead of purchasing heating oil. MJUSD will receive an estimated $20,000 in annual revenue from the Medical Center for providing geothermal heat. MJUSD is expected to save as much as $6.5 million over the estimated 30 year life of the system, considering an initial diesel oil cost of $3.07 per gallon, a heating cost inflation rate of 3.5 percent per year and the completion of the Modoc Medical Center and the planned skilled nursing facility. The additional energy savings, the use of the fiber optic cable, and revenue from the medical facility will allow MJUSD to spend more on education and public programs and to purchase important items such as equipment, supplies, books, and technology instead of heating oil every year for the life of the system, which could be over 30 years MJUSD successfully completed a project that can serve as a model for other small, rural communities that want to use their local geothermal resources, save money, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
