Evaluating the level and nature of sustainable development for a geothermal power plant

The paper provides for an evaluation of the potential level and nature of sustainable development of the Sabalan geothermal power plant in NW Iran, to be operational in 2011. The paper achieves this by applying a mathematical model of sustainable development developed by the author (re: Phillips [17,18]), in respect to the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) conducted by Yousefi et al. [13] using the Rapid Impact Assessment Matrix (RIAM) methodology (re: Pastakia [15]; Pastakia and Jensen [16]). Using a model application methodology developed for the RIAM, the results indicated that the nature of sustainable development for Sabalan was considered to be very weak (S = 0.063). This was due to the imbalance between negative environmental impacts and positive socio-economic impacts deriving from the project. Further, when placed into context with a similar set of results obtained from the EIA of the Tuzla geothermal power plant by Baba [35] also using the RIAM methodology, then the similarities between the results obtained raises some legimate questions as to the sustainable development credentials of geothermal power production.