To the Big Little Town of Reno, NV

I've been in Reno, NV since Thursday for the National Geothermal Conference.  Geothermal energy has been receiving much attention lately from new investors, the federal government, and even Google, so the excitement level here is high.  Google recently made a big announcement for major funding for the next generation of geothermal energy, called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), which the DOE is also strongly supporting.  I got to meet the Google.org president today, who is very cool and just how I'd expect the 'Google guy' to be, but I'm also meeting a lot of other really interesting, intelligent people and learning little by little along the way about how things work in the industry.  Even though I know it's not an "academic" conference, I am amazed at how political this whole business is... but geothermal's a big deal to the western states and especially to Nevada.    

On Saturday I got to see my first geothermal power plant in Steamboat just 15 minutes away.  It was a lot of pipes and such, which I would love to explain to you here but in the interest of time (and your attention) I'll spare the nerd-talk :)   But if you want, you can check out the pictures.  Our team gets to go on site to another well on Wednesday, which is actually the location of the project I'll be managing, so it will be helpful to have something to compare with. 

Here in Reno I'm sad by how flat and spread out everything is.  There is nothing to do but gamble (which is not really appealing to me) but I will say that it's gorgeous out here in the west.  Looking out of my hotel window you can see evidence of the year's first snow out on the mountain tops just right outside the city.   My favorite discovery thus far is the quiet (albiet, man-made) lake I circled on my early morning run.  I was stopped by the fragrance of lavender and juniper bushes growing all around, a scent I recognize from potpourri and body sprays but not ever from nature.  The desert yardscapes are also very cool. 

 

Lake Tahoe is only about 45 minutes away and Yosemite National Park is a little over a two hour drive - It's killing me to be so close! I really hope I can make a trip out there. Yesterday was really my only hope until my supervisor encouraged me to stick around the hotel in case I need to be in meetings (which I didn't...) but I haven't given up yet.

Tonight we're off to a little Mexican place called Beto's, where I enjoyed my first ever fish taco the other night. Michael and I discovered it on Saturday night and now we're taking the rest of the work crew.  It's very small and one of the most authentic mexican places I've ever been, so I hope they like it too.  No matter what, I'm sure we'll all enjoy a night away from the hotel casino scene.