Steaming Hot
by Oliver Carlos
Very near my hometown is the world’s 4th largest geothermal powerplant, the Makiling-Banahaw Geothermal Powerplant in barangay Bitin, Bay Laguna. We call it MakBan for short. When I was a teen, I used to ride my mountain bike all the way to the powerplant located at a plateau on the eastern slope of Mt. Makiling. It’s not as high as Peak 2, but climbing it is a good workout as the road really gets steep near the top. That was in the late 1980s when the said road was not yet paved.
You would know that you’re near MakBan when you start seeing the huge pipes by the roadside. I didn’t know then what those pipes contain. It was several years later when I researched what those pipes are for, and how a geothermal powerplant works.
To begin with, geothermal powerplants use steam to generate electricity. The steam comes from underneath the ground. As its name suggests, “geothermal” comes from the Greek words- “geo” which means earth, and “thermos” which means heat. Thus, the heat from underneath the earth becomes the ingredient for making electricity. The steam gush in pipes that lead to turbines that turn round and round to produce electricity. That’s the simplest layman’s explanation I can give. Mechanical engineers can give you a more detailed version.
Geothermal powerplants are built on or near a volcano. Mt. Makiling is a volcano as evidenced by the numerous hot springs around it. In the 1970s, the government had identified it as a nice place to build a geothermal powerplant, and so in the following years, The MakBan powerplant was built. After some time, the powerplant was privatized. I just don’t know if the government or some private company would build another one near Mt. Banahaw in the Eastern Laguna-Quezon area.
Geothermal power is said to be nature-friendly or earth-friendly because it just uses steam, which is simply water vapor, that goes on and on in a cycle from the volcano to the powerplant, and back. It’s called renewable energy.
I find this topic fascinating. It’s amazing how humans in the modern times can now tap nature to work for them, I’m talking specifically about volcanoes. My musings led me to research if volcanoes were mentioned in the Bible. Or are there volcanoes in Bible land? To my surprise, the answer is yes. There are a handful of volcanoes in the Golan Heights, that’s the area north of the Sea of Galilee. David, the psalmist mentioned about a volcanic eruption too. Let’s read Psalm 18:6–8 (NIV):
“The earth trembled and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains shook…Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it.”
This psalm tells us how powerful our God is. It describes the amount of power God holds in his hands. A violent volcanic eruption is just like a droplet of water in a bucket, or a cup of water in the ocean. These are understatements of course. God’s might is so much more than these comparisons. If the might of a volcano blowing its top is so mesmerizing, how much more is God’s power? If he would budge just an inch, we might see something more humongous than a volcanic eruption.
David was praying for help in the first part of the psalm. He said in verse 6: “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came before him, into his ears.”
Then God exhibited a little sample of his power by showing David a volcanic eruption. He’s saying that his power is stronger than David’s strongest worry. God is bigger than David’s largest problem.
Dear friend, what’s bothering you these days? Remember that no mountain is too big for God to flatten. Bring it to God in prayer, and watch his deliverance unfold before your very eyes.
