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Tag: Bureau of Land Management

Enhanced Geothermal Energy Project Halted in The Geysers

— 8:37 pm · View all 3 comments

Steam-powered electricity generation in The GeysersLate in 2008, George Bush’s Department of Energy committed $6 million to Sausalito-based AltaRock Energy (as part of a consortium…see addendum below) for energy production using Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). EGS technology works by by injecting water down a deep well into hot rock, fracturing the rock and creating steam which is piped to the surface where it turns turbines and generates electricity. Yesterday, the project was halted due to drilling problems.

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Enhanced Geothermal Energy and Man-Made Earthquakes (Part 2)

— 9:30 am · View all 2 comments

As described in a previous post, Sausalito-based AltaRock Energy is drilling a Lake County test well aimed at producing energy by utilizing a technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). AltaRock’s project is on federal land leased by the Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) on a ridge just above the community of Anderson Springs, CA. According to an article published July 15 in the Lake County News, however, “concerns about the technology AltaRock is using has caused the Bureau of Land Management [BLM] and the Department of Energy [DOE] to decide to conduct further study before the work moves forward.”

In light of the earthquake activity caused by a similar EGS project in Basel, Switzerland in 2006, the question to be studied is: might EGS engender serious earthquakes here in California?

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