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SALT LAKE CITY -- Geothermal energy is clean, runs 24 hours a day and could be providing millions of people with electricity in Utah and the West. So what's the holdup? Academics, officials and business representatives will make that question the center of a two-day meeting and field trip next week for utilities, municipalities, students, homeowners and anyone interested in the geothermal potential bubbling up from Utah's hot pots. Geologists, utilities and entrepreneurs already believe the state possesses some of the best geothermal reservoirs in the nation, resources that could generate 850 megawatts, enough to meet the needs of 2.6 million people. And as the price of coal, natural gas and oil continues to climb, geothermal is attracting more interest. Cost, though, still is an issue, because "it takes time and exploration dollars" to decide where best to drill, said Dianne Nielson, Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr.'s energy policy adviser. Big projects can cost $1 million to $2 million to develop and take three to five years to start operations, said Jason Berry, who runs Utah's Energy Program But the future of conventional coal-fired energy is murky, too. That's why PacifiCorp, which serves much of the nation's west, is seeking to develop more geothermal energy. The utility provider is looking to expand on its Blundell generator, the first geothermal plant in the nation constructed outside California, spokesman Jeff Hymas said. Located in southwest Utah, it was built in the mid-1980s. Even though the technology is carbon-free and California is willing to pay premium prices for the electricity, the cost might still be too high, he said. "There's an inherent risk in developing geothermal resources," Hymas said. "Part of that is the large up-front capital cost." There are several ways to use geothermal energy. The simplest way is to use steam for radiant heat.Even less-technical geothermal heat pumps employ piping in horizontal or vertical trenches to pre-cool or preheat the air going into air conditioners and furnaces, increasing appliance efficiency by 70 percent to 90 percent. Large geothermal power plants pull hot water and steam from the ground, use the steam to drive turbines to create electricity, then return water to the ground. Plants also can use relatively low-heat "binary" geothermal technology by passing the hot water through a heat exchanger to boil a fluid such as isobutane at lower temperatures than water to create steam. Raser Technologies, a Provo, Utah company, is starting on its third small project using the binary system in a kind of prefab plant to profit on Utah's largely untapped geothermal resources, 10 megawatts at a time. Although Raser wouldn't mind getting tax credits and incentives, "we think these projects are profitable in themselves," company spokesman Richard Putnam said. The company expects its first plant to start generating electricity, Putnam said. The three plants would generate enough power for about 90,000 people. (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)