Calpine will look at solar, geothermal

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. independent power producer Calpine Corp. CPNLQ.PK plans to invest in solar power and also expand its geothermal operations after it emerges from bankruptcy, Calpine Chief Executive Robert May said on Monday.

"We will put aside some modest dollars in a development standpoint, particularly in California and Texas, to see what's possible to integrate solar with our power plants," May said at the Reuters Global Energy Summit in New York.

The company expects to get out of bankruptcy in the fourth quarter or early in the first quarter next year, he said.

May told the summit there is a shifting landscape on the environment. He cited California's programs to attack global warming and climate change for putting more urgency behind efforts in other states and Washington to develop renewable energy resources.

May said San Jose, California-based Calpine is mainly focused on solar energy but also noted the company has more geothermal opportunities in California.

"We have a fair amount of geothermal still yet to be developed farther north in California in Glass Mountain that we think has enormous potential in the California marketplace," May said.

Calpine holds leases to develop the Glass Mountain geothermal resource in the Mount Shasta region of Northern California.

Calpine also owns and operates the 725-megawatt Geysers geothermal plant about 72 miles north of San Francisco and last week announced a five-year program to increase production there by 80 megawatts.

Glass Mountain is believed to be the largest known undeveloped geothermal resource in the U.S. with a potential on the order of 500 megawatts.

The site, however, is an area that Native Americans consider sacred and development as a geothermal project is uncertain and faces legal challenges.

May said there are some infrastructure issues and social issues around development at Glass Mountain, "but to me there is great opportunity on geothermal there."

New geothermal projects also are underway in neighboring Nevada, and Texas has launched a process to develop geothermal resources in sate-owned coastal waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

On California's environmental push, May said: "I think that California, in this regard, is going to be another case where they're going to be a bellwether," harking back to surfboards as a symbol for the state.

"The environmental initiatives out in California, I think in some form or another ... will find their way around the states."

(Additional reporting by Matt Daily and Eileen O'Grady in New York)