Rotary Club of Bellingham Tattler - NOVEMBER 13, 2023
Tattler Reporter Catherine Riordan
Tattler Editor Steve Ban
Photographer: Mike Diehl
Scott Herman
"Geothermal Energy-
Past, Present & Future"
Opening Welcome:
President Doug made a bell noise to "ring" the meeting to order at 12:30 PM and welcomed us all, including a lot of guests. Our featured speaker today is a popular guy.
Doug expressed his thankfulness to members of the RCOB Board who attend many meetings and devote a lot of time. He also singled out our long-standing Treasurer, Steve Gray, for special kudos for his tireless and dependable service, mostly behind the scenes, keeping our Club solvent and fulfilling all regulations.
Doug then announced that our weekly meetings will continue to be held in the Phyllis and Charles Self Learning Commons building until further notice. An advantage is that we won’t have to order meals ahead and instead can go to the little snack shop down the hall before the meeting to purchase lunch. Sounds like a reduction in workload for Sandee. Yeah!
Doug reminded us of the Future of Bellingham community conversation we are hosting, along with the City of Bellingham, on December 4.
Doug then asked Paul Grey to announce the proposed slate of RCOB officers for the coming Rotary year (see Board Notes below). “Lead or get out of the way” was Paul’s opening. Leading takes five times as much energy as does following, in Paul’s experience.
Doug mentioned the District Foundation Dinner, which is next Saturday at the Bellingham Country Club. If you didn’t get an email invitation and would like to go, contact Doug or Sandee for details.
John Pedlow's recovery from his stroke is going very well, according to President Doug, who visited him this past week. His speech is normal and just slight motor issues persist. He hopes to rejoin us soon.
Rotary Brass
The Rotary Brass, supplemented by some very talented guest brass players, really knocked our socks off today as they played a medley of the signature song of each of our uniformed services. Our feelings of patriotism surged, warming us up for the Member Moment.
Guests:
Monty McAllister introduced Mark & Genie Fairhart. Monty met them at the Community Boating Center Work Party.
Doug Cole introduced George Halsell
Del VandeKerk (Trumpet)introduced the Rotary Brass members:
Peter Kirkman - Trumpet
George Halsell - French Horn
John Dunne - Trombone
Doug Cole - Baritone
Doug Sutton - Tuba
Featured Speaker Scott Herman brought his wife Jennifer.
Aaron Booker introduced Judson Morse, Son of DC and Jan, younger brother of Daver. Bob Morse is uncle! He is also the first host of our Exchange Student, JV.
Members on Zoom: Steve Hager, Loch Trimingham, Jack Westford, Dick Tucker, Shauna Naf, Roland Trenouth and special guest Sam Diehl.
Visiting Rotarians: Debbie Kiene, John Rauch, and Curtis Dye
Club Events and Committee Announcements
BREAKING NEWS: Going forward we will be meeting at the Phyllis & Charles Self Learning Center, Room 160.
You will be able to purchase hot & cold sandwich's made with Avenue Bread, soup, salads, cookies, and beverages at the full coffee shop in The Cove, down the hall from the meeting room.
THERE WILL BE NO NEED TO SIGN-UP FOR MEALS BUT AN EMAIL WILL GO OUT WEEKLY ASKING YOU TO SIGN UP FOR ATTENDANCE SO WE HAVE AN IDEA OF THE NUMBER ATTENDING TO ENSURE ENOUGH SEATING.
Shauna Naf announced we are sponsoring Future Bellingham, a City of Bellingham Comprehensive Plan Listening Session, hosted by the Rotary Clubs in Bellingham and Whatcom Community College.
December 4th from 4:00-600pm
in the Syre Theater.
Please sign up through Clubrunner.
Every 10 years, Bellingham creates a Comprehensive Plan – a vision for what the city should strive for over the next two decades. The 2025 plan is being formed now and your voice is needed! What should we be working towards in terms of housing, neighborhood makeup, parks, transportation, diversity and inclusion, public health and safety, and the economy? The City of Bellingham Comprehensive Plan team will be onsite and actively collecting your thoughts and ideas to weave into future plans for the city.
Dave Blair reminded members to get their Major Project Pledge in soon for the Light House Mission Medical Center. Click here for the form.
Teri Treat announced a Foundation meeting 5pm today, at Nathan Twining'soffice.
Felicity Dye announced that Whatcom County's 5 Rotary Clubs are sending two additional exchange students next year, making a a total of four from our county. We will receive an equal number of international students.
Board Briefs November 9. 2023
Monday, December 4th, we will be holding the “Future Bellingham” Event in the Syre Theater from 4:00-6:00. It was determined we will still hold our regular noon meeting also that day.
President Doug reported that the Social Committee has numerous social plans coming up, including a proposed club social in 2024 at Greg Grants Lincoln Garage.
Monty McAllister, Chairman of the Student Exchange & Youth Mentoring Committee, asked the board to consider sponsoring 2 incoming Exchange Students at an approximate cost of $2,145 per student for the Rotary year 2024-2025.
Paul Grey presented the Nominating Committee's final slate of officers for 2024-2025 and received unanimous approval by the board. Paul will announce to the membership soon. No election is needed.
Mike and Tracy Diehl have four children, ages 20-27. They are proud of them all, but, in honor of Veterans’ Day, Mike chose to talk about Sam, their oldest, who has been in the Army for six years. Sam serves in the special forces and recently earned his green beret. He leads a small special services group of 12 soldiers who regularly carry backpacks weighing 120-150 lbs. The special forces are “force multipliers” who rely on stealth to do their work. They can operate anywhere in the world for extended periods. The group is versatile and includes specially trained experts of many types. Sam is learning Russian now.
Sam visited with us via zoom from Fayetteville. He’ll be moving to Colorado Springs in the spring to continue his work with the Special Forces 10.
Mystery Photo Dave Blair
Even though he was sitting down, one look at those long, long legs gave us all the clues we needed.
Weekly Payment Reminder
VENMO:
@RCOB- Bellingham.
Give Sandee a call if you need help. 360-734-5532.
CASH / CHECK:
Yes, we still take these and saving on fees is appreciated.
John Moffat introduced Scott Herman, one of our newer members, noting he has worked as a geologist all over the world for over 25 years, and in the geothermal energy industry since 2009. He has experience with geothermal exploration, evaluation, development, and operations, gathered across five continents. He has also drilled geothermal wells for power generation in the US, Indonesia, and New Zealand, and managed operating geothermal fields in New Zealand. After working for several leading companies within the geothermal industry, Scott started his own consulting company, Vulcan Geoscience. His clients are seeking ways to provide clean, sustainable baseload power to the renewable energy market. (These are large scale operations, not for individual homes.)
Scott began his talk with a brief physics review: How is heat transferred? From least to most efficient, it's radiation, conduction and convection. He also reminded us of the many sources of geothermal energy and the depth to which the sun’s energy reaches (20-30 feet).
To some extent, Scott’s work is as a heat "miner": extracting heat from the earth via water and then sending that water back into the ground. These are direct heat systems.
Geothermal power operations essentially replace boilers with hot water and steam directly from the ground. The heat available for extraction is at varying depths, and only those closest to the surface make good sources for geothermal plants because of the cost of pulling hot water from deep wells compared to the revenue received from these systems.
There are both flash and binary geothermal systems. The latter is not as hot, but suitable for some purposes where lower temperatures can get the job done (e.g., heating sidewalks). Essentially there are large sets of cascading uses.
Scott showed a picture taken in Iceland of a well-known geothermal plant. The plant created a blue lagoon as a byproduct of its processes and that lagoon has become a tourist attraction. Revenue from that tourism is greater than that from selling electricity from the plant.
To date, only two geothermal plants in the world are being used to do electrical charging.
The French were the first to harness geothermal energy in 1818 and running a generator in 1904. The US began tapping the geysers in 1921 but didn’t expand the use of geothermal until 1960.
The US is the global leader in geothermal energy, yet it is less than half a percent of energy use in the US. China dominates in direct use geothermal energy.
Scott shared some of the very positive features of geothermal energy plants: They are online 97% of time, year round, and have the lowest cradle to grave carbon footprint of any power source. (Scott noted there is still some debate over this conclusion.)
Despite the strengths, it is hard to deploy geothermal widely because the best hotspots (e.g. geysers, ring of fire) are not common. Critical research is underway to explore ways to reduce the limitation of proximity to hotspots in siting plants.
Scott noted that ground source heat pumps are efficient, yet expensive, and so are not widely utilized.
To use geothermal for electrical power generation, there would be a great deal of digging and construction involved that would make the payback period so long that most companies would not be interested. Remedying this would change the world, in Scott’s mind. To date, some innovations have been supported by tax rebates that help to cover the risk and steep costs of initial stages.
Experience to date shows that plants can run up to 50 years. The longest-running plants are those that haven’t had to be shut down for maintenance. The typical plant lifecycle estimates are 20-30 years.
Iceland has developed a lot of innovative uses of geothermal.
When asked about our work in the villages in Honduras, Scott guessed solar was the better solution because of the small scale of the village needs, and the relative cost of the two systems.
Closing:
Doug thanked all those who contributed to the meeting and encouraged us all to help restore our meeting to room to its original state. He "rang" the meeting to adjournment at 1:35 PM.
Catherine Riordan Invocation
Rotary Brass tribute to our troops
Food choices going forward
Hot and Cold Sandwiches with Avenue Bread, Soup, Salads
Cookies
Hot and Cold Beverages
Community Boating Center work party November 12, 2023
RCOB apparel, including polo shirts, dress shirts, vests and hats is now available. These are items that every Club member simply must have in his/her wardrobe! Besides looking great, Club members will be contributing to branding for the RCOB as well as supporting our Club's Foundation, which will receive part of the proceeds.
Click on the button below for the the clothing catalogue, with the Order Form on the last page. Fill out the order form, turn it into Vinson Latimore at a meeting or email a scanned copy to embroidery@choicesscrubs.com.
Rotary Moment
