Ex-USGS scientist leads team of experts developing geothermal energy in NMI

A FORMER scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey is leading a team of experts...

  A FORMER scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey is leading a team of experts who will study the possibility of producing electricity in the Northern Marianas through geothermal energy from its volcanic islands in the north.Dr. James Quick  worked for 25 years at the USGS and is a former program coordinator of its volcano hazards program.He is now the associate vice president for research and dean of graduate studies at Southern Methodist University in Texas —and Gov. Benigno R. Fitial’s special assistant for alternative energy. Quick, who initiated planning for and implementation of a volcano monitoring network for the CNMI, said there are nine volcanoes that could potentially produce electricity at cheaper cost than the diesel-powered generators.“You have nine volcanic islands north of Saipan and the analogy suggests that the geothermal power there could generate tens to hundreds of megawatts per volcano,” Quick told Variety in an interview." Once we tapped unto it, it would be available for the foreseeable future,” he added. The scientist said they want to focus their study on the northern uninhabited volcanic islands of Alamagan and Pagan. “The governor has been assembling a team of experts. We’re looking for money from the federal government to try to pay for the initial study something in the order of $500,000. We could look at the volcanoes between Saipan, Alamagan and Pagan,” he said. Quick said they need federal assistance to finance their logistics in the remote and uninhabited volcanic islands. Pagan is located about 320 km north of Saipan and forced its residents to evacuate when its volcano erupted in 1981.Alamagan is about 270 km north of Saipan. A geothermal plant can be established within a small period of time, according to Quick, who holds a Ph.D. from the California Institute of Technology, a bachelor’s degree in geology from UCLA and a master’s in petrology from the University of Minnesota.But Quick said the feasibility of the project must first be established because volcanoes have erratic behavior.A geothermal plant can be established rapidly. “But first we need to do some groundwork. The first step is to make a very careful assessment of the geothermal potential that there is and understand what it would cost to bring that energy to the people,” said Quick.“The next step is exploration. This is more time consuming. It involves actually drilling the holes to locate the power sources. The erratic behavior of these volcanoes is an issue. Volcanoes need to be monitored. This needs to be done as well if we were to develop the geothermal energy,” he added.