GEOTHERMAL BREAKS NEW GROUND

AltaRock Geothermal Gets New Boost
John Lorinc, November 16, 2009 (NY Times)

"As part of a newly announced $338 million boost for 123 geothermal energy projects nationwide, the Department of Energy will sink $25 million into what is called an “enhanced” or “engineered” geothermal demonstration project in Oregon being developed in part by AltaRock Energy, which recently halted work on a similar venture in California due to drilling problems.

"The grant — by far the largest on the list — is for the development [by AltaRock and Davenport Power] of the Newberry Project, which is near an Oregon volcano…[It] will begin as a 30-megawatt test facility that can develop into a 120 megawatt plant within the next two years…"

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"An enhanced geothermal system seeks to tap the essentially bottomless storehouse of energy in the earth’s core. It involves drilling to depths of well over 10,000 feet and then injecting cold water to create networks of small fractures in the hot rock…to pump water down into these fissures, capture the heat and bring it back to the surface to drive a turbine. Unlike conventional geothermal, which relies on subterranean pockets of hot water, proponents of enhanced geothermal systems [EGS] say the technology is essentially location-neutral, meaning these wells could be sunk almost anywhere in the world.

"…AltaRock, in its regulatory filings, had failed to disclose that a previous [EGS] experiment in Switzerland had triggered a small earthquake…[T]he company defended its Geysers project, in Northern California, and stressed that it had sought to avoid drilling near fault lines…[but] suspended work on Geysers in September, citing drilling difficulties and a call for further review by California regulators."

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"…[T]he new federal grant, plus private financing, will underwrite the cost of building three enhanced-geothermal-system wells in Oregon — one for injecting water into the rock and the other two as “production” wells that will draw up heat to generate power. The companies want to be in a position to start production from the first phase by next summer…[T]he company drilled at the Oregon volcano [which has erupted 25 times in the last 10,000 years] last year and found a lot of heat, but not enough water to run a conventional geothermal plant, so it decided to partner with AltaRock to investigate an enhanced geothermal system…

"In 2006, the Massachusett Institute of Technology released a massive study describing what it would take to develop enhanced geothermal system into a major source of baseload power by 2050…The study was guided by an 18-member panel, which included Susan Petty, a geothermal expert and a co-founder of AltaRock."