in order to Jamie, who had a promising career in Star County and Hidalgo County, has helped a handful of people there. Sage team of course. A utility manager in the city of McAllen wants to build a geothermal power plant in his city. She was talking to Dario Guerra, a local plumber who has been preaching the geothermal gospel for years. But one person she never met was James McAllen.
So, in the late afternoon, Jamie and I drove about an hour northwest of the city of McAllen to the 50,000-acre San Juanito Ranch, popularly known as McAllen Ranch. We passed through an inconspicuous gate, and James, tall and skinny with an ivory cowboy hat on his head, strode to meet us with a wide smile on his face. rice field. We headed to Rock House, home of the ranch. This low-rise stone building was built over a century ago. yes. James’ great-great-grandfather named the town. This ranch has been working with cattle and horses since before Texas was a state. But he explained that cows were no longer profitable.
“My job is to figure out how this ranch is going to move into the next 100 years,” he said. “And we’re not going to do that with livestock.” Instead, the family looks to every resource “from sun to wind to grass to dirt to gravel.” About five years ago, James and partners installed a series of solar panels. The ranch happens to share land ownership with the substation and sells electricity to the power company. He was also planning to build his four solar arrays.
But one of his nephews, who was studying at UT Austin, called him recently. “Hey, Uncle Jim,” said the child. And McAllen Ranch was all over the place. In the late 1970s, when the government was looking for a site to test geothermal heat, it contacted James’ father to see if he would like to work with him on a demonstration plant. “It was kind of his sci-fi tech,” he explained James. no.
After his nephew’s phone call, James began to think. He spoke with a utility company that sells solar. They were excited about the prospect of purchasing geothermal energy as it is a baseload and readily available source. So he called his friend Dario Guerra (exactly the same) and Dario told James about the Sage crew and work near them. Soon Cindy, Lev and Lance showed up for dinner with a bottle of tequila. Within weeks, James signed a joint venture agreement with the team. He worked on his $27 million or so funding needed, and Sage began planning a ranch well.
While James told us all this, Jamie sat a little quieter at the other end of the table. But during the pause, she dove in enthusiastically. “Wait. Is your nephew a petroleum engineer?” she asked. “That class exists for GEO!” GEO is a program she started in college. “I feel like I’m in a simulation,” she said, a children’s professor who was the first instructor Jamie recruited to her UT.
On our last morning in Texas, we found Jamie in the hotel dining room. Cereal and yogurt were on the table in front of her. She was watching a video of her son. she has a tear on her cheek. She handed me the phone so I could see Sage. He was at the table eating breakfast. he is a gorgeous kid A big smile, nice curly black hair. He communicates with sweet moans and laughter. She missed him. But she was crying too because she was exhausted and overwhelmed. It was after seeing how far Sage Geosystems had come and after meeting James McAllen and the hours and days and minutes she spent pushing this project forward that geothermal exploration took on a life of its own. for he was drowning in his steps. .
when i arrived Upon returning home from our trip to Texas, my husband and I had to face new test results and a terrifying conversation with the doctor. received. In the moments between the ER visit and the desperate phone call, I filled as much space in my mind as possible to keep my thoughts away from the unimaginable. But when the foothold in our lives began to shake, it became difficult to face the simple requirements of getting through the day. Then it gets even harder.
