DOCTOR DRILL TO DX COLO GEOTHERM

Wells needed to answer geothermal questions
Joe Stone, January 12, 2010 (The Mountain Mail)

"Developing a geothermal power plant is a long-term process, Fred Henderson, chief scientific officer of Mount Princeton Geothermal, LLC, said recently…Henderson said drilling two or three exploratory wells 2,500 feet deep is the next step in efforts to produce electricity. He said feasibility of the project is unknown without deep well data about the underlying geothermal reservoir.

"Although the highest geothermal temperatures in Colorado have been documented at the Mount Princeton site, higher temperature is needed to efficiently operate a geothermal power plant…[The company] hopes to find a temperature of 250 degrees in deep exploratory wells…[without impairing water quality, quantity or temperature or]…the Colorado Division of Water Resources won't issue a production permit."

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"…[Henderson] believes tapping the geothermal resource at depths greater than 2,000 feet will prevent damage to the shallow aquifer that feeds local wells and hot springs…[and] determine if the deep aquifer has sufficient flow to support geothermal electricity production…[D]eep wells are also needed to define specific location of the deeper geothermal reservoir…

"..[A] plant could be engineered to fit a space equivalent to Mount Princeton Greenhouses near the geothermal study area…[and] would be air-cooled, not water-cooled and therefore would have no steam plume…[A] 10-megawatt project goal is an estimate and…electricity output would be based upon maintainable long-term energy production as indicated by the deep well tests."


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"…[The company] hopes work can begin on deep wells in the spring…[if it gets] a Colorado Division of Water Resources permit and landowner permission…[T]here are plans to install monitoring equipment throughout the area to document natural fluctuation in temperature and water level in addition to any changes that might occur if a plant begins operation…[T]he Colorado Geological Survey and Colorado School of Mines had a seismic monitoring network in the area, but…[there is] little risk…

"Projects recently abandoned because of earthquakes - one in Basel, Switzerland, the other in northern California - relied upon "enhanced geothermal" techniques including fracturing bedrock by pumping high pressure fluid into the ground…[The] binary technology proposed for Mount Princeton would involve no high pressure pumping and would simply return used water to the underground reservoir…If successful, the Mount Princeton Geothermal project will be the first in the state and will be an important step toward meeting the state-mandated 2020 goal of generating 20 percent of power for Colorado from renewable resources…"