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The Oregon Institute of Technology is in hot water and taking full advantage.

Approximately three miles below OIT’s campus in Klamath Falls, a massive water reservoir stretches for nearly two cubic miles. The institute has used the water to heat its buildings (approximately 850,000 square feet) since the mid-1970s.

Now, OIT is preparing to build on its campus a $14 million geothermal power plant able to generate 1.75 megawatts of electricity. Medford-based Batzer Construction recently issued a request for bids from subcontractors for the project.

The facility will be able to pump 2,000 gallons of water 鈥� 193 degrees Fahrenheit 鈥� per minute.

鈥淚 could fill your average swimming pool in about three minutes, but you wouldn’t want to get in it,鈥� said David Epson, OIT’s facilities director.

A 49-foot-wide by 70-foot-long pre-engineered steel building will be erected. Inside, crews from Johnson Controls Inc. will construct two new generators that will pull geothermal water from a 5,308-foot-deep drill shaft created by OIT in 2009.

Geothermal water will be pumped through a closed-loop system next to a liquid refrigerant that flashes into steam at a much lower temperature than water. The steam will be pushed through turbines that create electricity. The geothermal water will return to the reservoir at a different location; steam will be condensed back into liquid.

Toni Boyd with OIT’s Geo-Heat Center, a geothermal resource and consulting group, said that while the up-front construction costs for geothermal systems are high, the long-term savings are significant. Direct geothermal heat costs approximately 20 percent less than natural gas in most residential homes, she said. The new plant is expected to save OIT $500,000 a year.

鈥淎nd since we’re just using a little electricity to circulate the hot water 鈥� you don’t have to worry about the fossil fuel electricity because we’re not burning gas,鈥� she said. 鈥淪o it’s cleaner.鈥�

In 2010, OIT built a 280-kilowatt geothermal power plant and became the first campus in the world to generate its own power from a resource directly underneath its foundations. But others also are capitalizing on geothermal opportunities in Oregon.

For instance, more than 500 wells provide direct geothermal heat to approximately half of the homes in Klamath Falls.

Also, renewable energy developers Nevada Geothermal Power Inc. and Ormat Inc. to develop a 30-megawatt geothermal power plant in Lake County by 2013. Earlier this year, Reno, Nev.-based Klamath Basin Geopower announced it would begin exploratory drilling on a 2,250-acre Klamath County site that it believes could support a 160-megawatt power plant.

And outside of Bend, Davenport Newberry has partnered with AltaRock Energy Inc. to test an enhanced geothermal system called hydro-shearing. The Department of Energy is providing $21.4 million in matching grants for the project.

In hydro-shearing, high-pressure cold water is injected into natural underground fissures. The water captures the rock’s heat and returns to the surface to power steam turbines.

With a capacity of more than 3,000 megawatts, the United States is the world leader in geothermal energy production. In 2007, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology issued a report that found that with an investment of $800 million to $1 billion in research and development, enhanced geothermal systems could provide 100,000 megawatts of clean, cost-competitive energy to the entire country by 2050.

But little money has gone toward such efforts, according to the report.

For its part, OIT plans to feature its new power plant in renewable energy engineering classes. The institute also has applied for a couple of grants to use the power plant as a research tool.

Boyd said one study would model plant performance and look at how output could be affected by temperature increases or use of different refrigerants. Another might explore whether solar technology can improve efficiency in generating geothermal power.

When the new power plant is finished, OIT will be the first campus in the world to supply all of its heating and electrical energy from a geothermal resource directly underfoot. Total savings per year are estimated to reach $1 million.

鈥淲e’re trying to reduce our carbon footprint,鈥� Epson said. 鈥淲e’re trying to be sustainable and reduce our dependence on grid power.鈥�