在能源部的支持下，加利福尼亚州布劳利的一家甜菜加工厂正在进行地热能的商业开发。该项目利用公司拥有的资源可能提供的地热能，并将该能源直接应用于其设施中的甜菜加工。在项目完成时，该项目将提供能源，用技术简单、经济合理、环境可接受的地热应用替代每年超过22.5万桶的燃料油（超过目前工厂消耗量的三分之二）。本文介绍了地热资源，将地热能输送到甜菜加工厂的技术，并讨论了该厂内各种连接和使用地热能的权衡和配置。 引文:研讨会，ASHRAE交易，第86卷，第一部分，加利福尼亚州洛杉矶

The commercial exploitation of geothermal energy is being implemented at a sugar beet processing plant in Brawley, CA under the auspices of the Department of Energy. This program capitalizes on the geothermal energy potentially available from a company-owned resource and applies the energy directly to the processing of sugar beets in their facility. At its completion, the program will provide energy to replace over 225,000 barrels of fuel oil per year (more than two-thirds of the current plant consumption) by a technically straightforward, economically sound and environmentally acceptable geothermal application. This paper describes the geothermal resource, the technique for transporting the geothermal energy to the beet processing facility and discusses the various tradeoffs and configurations within the facility that interface and use the geothermal energy.