Environment

What Do You Get When You Pump 24 Million Gallons of Water Into a Volcano?

Energy Developers Set to Pump Millions of Gallons of Water Into Oregon Volcano in Hopes of Renewable Energy(The Blaze/AP) While you may think a group pumping millions of gallons of water into a volcano is the latest method to try and snuff it out, the volcano is actually dormant. So, why are geothermal energy developers planning to dump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer? They are demonstrating technology too see if this method could be a viable option for green renewable energy.

What the developers are hoping happens is that the water comes back to the surface fast enough and hot enough to create cheap, clean electricity that isn’t dependent on sunny skies or stiff breezes — without shaking the earth and rattling the nerves of nearby residents.

Efforts to use the earth’s heat to generate power, known as geothermal energy, have been further hampered by technical problems and worries that tapping it can cause earthquakes.

While this may sound like an unusual project, the federal government, Google and other investors are interested enough to invest $43 million. They are helping AltaRock Energy, Inc. of Seattle and Davenport Newberry Holdings LLC of Stamford, Conn., demonstrate whether the next level in geothermal power development can work on the flanks of Newberrry Volcano, located about 20 miles south of Bend, Ore.

Watch this explanation of the project:

“We know the heat is there,” said Susan Petty, president of AltaRock. “The big issue is can we circulate enough water through the system to make it economic.”

The heat in the earth’s crust has been used to generate power for more than a century. Engineers gather hot water or steam that bubbles near the surface and use it to spin a turbine that creates electricity. Most of those areas have been exploited. The new frontier is places with hot rocks, but no cracks in the rocks or water to deliver the steam.

To tap that heat – and grow geothermal energy from a tiny niche into an important source of green energy — engineers are working on a new technology called Enhanced Geothermal Systems. Learn more about EGS and other similar projects in this video:

“To build geothermal in a big way beyond where it is now requires new technology, and that is where EGS comes in,” said Steve Hickman, a research geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey in Menlo Park, Calif.

Wells are drilled deep into the rock and water is pumped in, creating tiny fractures in the rock, a process known as hydroshearing.

Cold water is pumped down production wells into the reservoir, and the steam is drawn out.

Energy Developers Set to Pump Millions of Gallons of Water Into Oregon Volcano in Hopes of Renewable Energy

(Image via AltaRock Energy)

Hydroshearing is similar to the process known as hydraulic fracturing, used to free natural gas from shale formations. But fracking uses chemical-laden fluids, and creates huge fractures.

Fingers have been pointed toward hydraulic fracturing as the cause of some recent earthquakes, and fears persist that cracking rock deep underground through hydroshearing can also lead to damaging quakes. EGS has other problems. It is hard to create a reservoir big enough to run a commercial power plant.

Progress has been slow. Two small plants are online in France and Germany. A third in downtown Basel, Switzerland, was shut down over earthquake complaints. A project in Australia has had drilling problems.

A new international protocol is coming out at the end of this month that urges EGS developers to keep projects out of urban areas, the so-called “sanity test,” said Ernie Majer, a seismologist with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. It also urges developers to be upfront with local residents so they know exactly what is going on.

AltaRock hopes to demonstrate a new technology for creating bigger reservoirs that is based on the plastic polymers used to make biodegradable cups.

It worked in existing geothermal fields. Newberry will show if it works in a brand new EGS field, and in a different kind of geology, volcanic rock, said Colin Williams, a USGS geophysicist also in Menlo Park.

The U.S. Department of Energy has given the project $21.5 million in stimulus funds. That has been matched by private investors, among them Google with $6.3 million.

Majer said the danger of a major quake at Newbery is very low. The area is a kind of seismic dead zone, with no significant faults. It is far enough from population centers to make property damage unlikely. And the layers of volcanic ash built up over millennia dampen any shaking.

But the Department of Energy will be keeping a close eye on the project, and any significant quakes would shut it down at least temporarily, he said. The agency is also monitoring EGS projects at existing geothermal fields in California, Nevada and Idaho.

“That’s the $64,000 question,” Majer said. “What’s the biggest earthquake we can have from induced seismicity that the public can worry about.”

Geologists believe Newberry Volcano was once one of the tallest peaks in the Cascades, reaching an elevation of 10,000 feet and a diameter of 20 miles. It blew its top before the last Ice Age, leaving a caldera studded with towering lava flows, two lakes, and 400 cinder cones, some 400 feet tall.

Although the volcano has not erupted in 1,300 years, hot rocks close to the surface drew exploratory wells in the 1980s.

Over 21 days, AltaRock will pour 800 gallons of water per minute into the 10,600-foot test well, already drilled, for a total of 24 million gallons. According to plan, the cold water cracks the rock. The tiny plastic particles pumped down the well seal off the cracks. Then more cold water goes in, bypassing the first tier, and cracking the rock deeper in the well. That tier is sealed off, and cold water cracks a third section. Later, the plastic melts away.

Seismic sensors produce detailed maps of the fracturing, expected to produce a reservoir of cracks starting about 6,000 feet below the surface, and extending to 11,000 feet. It would be about 3,300 feet in diameter.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management released an environmental assessment of the Newberry project last month that does not foresee any problems that would stop it. The agency is taking public comments before making a final decision in coming months.

No power plant is proposed, but one could be operating in about 10 years, said Doug Perry, president and CEO of Davenport Newberry.

EGS is attractive because it vastly expands the potential for geothermal power, which, unlike wind and solar, produces power around the clock in any weather.

Natural geothermal resources account for about 0.3 percent of U.S. electricity production, but a 2007 Massachusetts Institute of Technology report projected EGS could bump that to 10 percent within 50 years, at prices competitive with fossil-fuels.

Few people expect that kind of timetable now. Electricity prices have fallen sharply because of low natural gas prices and weak demand brought about by the Great Recession and state efficiency programs.

But the resource is vast. A 2008 USGS assessment found EGS throughout the West, where hot rocks are closer to the surface than in the East, has the potential to produce half the country’s electricity.

“The important question we need to answer now,” said Williams, the USGS geophysicist who compiled the assessment, “is how geothermal fits into the renewable energy picture, and how EGS fits. How much it is going to cost, and how much is available.”

Comments (29)

  • WheretheheckRwe
    Posted on January 23, 2012 at 10:38am

    The photo above looks similar to the sattelite photos taken over China recently.Could they be conducting the same type of research??

    Report Post »  
  • COFemale
    Posted on January 20, 2012 at 3:45pm

    So how is this action any different than Fracking? Now I realize oil and gas use additional ingredients, but the geothermal people are still injecting water into the rock. What happens if they hit a gas pocket or if they unleash other deadly minerals into the the water table. Here we go again as long as they are the ones fracking for what they want, it is okay. HIPPO CRIPS – yes intentional misspelling.

    Report Post » COFemale  
    • roastbeefman
      Posted on January 20, 2012 at 5:29pm

      Earths core is unlikley to get hotter. But do not worry, we will figure a way to cool it down. seriously! No way is it part of our ecosystem! Only center of our earth.

      Report Post »  
  • ingvard
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 10:31am

    Phase 4 Lava ???

    Report Post »  
  • Pro-Palin
    Posted on January 18, 2012 at 5:44am

    Sacraficial Virgins can only work their incase things fall to pieces and make thunder mountain angry.

    Report Post » Pro-Palin  
  • Krutch
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 2:13pm

    The money would be better spent drilling for OIL! Dumba$$es.

    Report Post »  
  • Green-man
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 8:51am

    I was in Klamath Falls Oregon37 years ago and they had the sidewalks snow free from underground thermo heat from the volcanic action in the area this is nothing new.
    Just outside of town Crater lake volcano erupted there 7,000 years ago it was enormous.
    Walk the rim of the crater it’s quite a site.

    Report Post »  
  • 4xeverything
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 7:58am

    So, the Bureau of Land Management says that a couple can’t build their home on a tiny lot surrounded by homes because the EPA has designated it to be a wetland even though there is no water on it, but they think it is hunky dory to pour massive quantities of water into a volcano and down fracking tubes that will possibly cause earthquakes less than a thousand miles from one of the worlds largest underground volcanoes…Yellowstone. Not to mention how geologically close to the San Andreas fault!!! 2012 is going to turn out to be a very interesting year. :0(

    Report Post » 4xeverything  
    • 4xeverything
      Posted on January 17, 2012 at 7:59am

      P.S. Forgot to mention the acid rain we can all expect from the mixture of water and magma. Yeah!

      Report Post » 4xeverything  
  • Floyd ALsbach
    Posted on January 17, 2012 at 7:52am

    I think it’s worth a try, it’s not like they are spending 500 million like Solyndra, just 50. Heck it costs far more than that to develop a new medicine. BTW Geothermal is commonly used on residential HVAC systems in rural areas. This is just a large scale trial of well understood technology. Steam turbine tech is well understood and commonly used in Coal fired electricity. Shouldn’t be Fed. money IDEALLY, but that’s the reality until we can change it.

    Report Post » Floyd ALsbach  
  • poverty.sucks
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 10:28pm

    Another example of Federal Government wasteful spending. This project will consume more energy than it will create. It will do good for the scientist and private business to experiment wasting $40 million, not acceptable to use tax payers money for the project. Dumping water back into the ground and not getting it all back doesn’t make much sense.

    If you enjoy the outdoors, Bend is a great place be.

    Report Post » poverty.sucks  
    • 100 Million Patriots Standing
      Posted on January 17, 2012 at 6:52am

      “A new international protocol is coming out…” from whom?
      another page in the UN – NWO policy book?

      “AltaRock hopes to demonstrate a new technology for creating bigger reservoirs that is based on the plastic polymers used to make biodegradable cups.” ? cups? Plastic? hopes?

      “Newberry will show if it works in a brand new EGS field, and in a different kind of geology, volcanic rock, ” If ?

      “The U.S. Department of Energy has given the project $21.5 million in stimulus funds. That has been matched by private investors, among them Google with $6.3 million.”

      Public-Private Partnerships !!! the basis of the UN – NWO the melting of government and Non Government Organizations (NGO’s) which are non elected entities having a large say in public policy items.

      “the danger of a major quake at Newbery is very low.”
      but still possible!

      “….to make property damage unlikely.” Unlikely?

      ” built up over millennia dampen any shaking.” Dampen…Shaking?

      “But the Department of Energy will be keeping a close eye on the project, and any significant quakes would shut it down at least temporarily” Temporarily?

      I feel better knowing that the DOE will be there watching out with their close eye, like they were with Solyndra.

      ““What’s the biggest earthquake we can have from induced seismicity that the public can worry about.”

      NONE !!!

      Report Post » 100 Million Patriots Standing  
    • COFemale
      Posted on January 20, 2012 at 3:49pm

      Wouldn’t it be a hoot if all the water they poured down evaporated before it came back up. Oops, back to the drawing board the magma was hotter than we expected. Or better yet, the awoke a sleeping volcano. Do these ding dongs really have a backup plan should something go awry?

      Report Post » COFemale  
  • liberalescheisskopf
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 9:20pm

    What could possibly go wrong??? (sarc)

    Report Post » liberalescheisskopf  
  • Mr Sanders
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 7:45pm

    Maybe they should try this on Mamouth Mountain in Kalifornia?

    Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho could certainly benefit from the Yellowstone Caldera – and no water required?!

    Fracking/Hydroshearing….. snap the rock…. release the energy – cool! Who would have thunk it.

    At lease they’re admitting they have a problem with Solar & Wind power – it doesn’t work with no sun or wind around.

    Bringing heat upwards also contains other elements that contribute to giving the planet a temperature – wonder if they accounted for that? I guess they’ll put those back into the earth by hydrosequenestration?

    Report Post » Mr Sanders  
  • Daniela T
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 7:05pm

    LOOK, i WAS TESTING A VULCANO IN LANZAROTE, SPREADING WATER FROM A BOTTLE , IT HEAR A GREAT SIZZLE YOU KNOW? I WAS ALSO THING WOW FREE ENERGY WHAT IF CAN COLECT THAT FREE STEAM? WITH SOME DYSON VACUUM PRINCIPLE FOR ABSORBTION MULTIPLYED YOU KNOW? HOW DIFFICULT IT COULD BE TO CREATE A TOP COVER WHICH CAN HERMETICALLY CLOSE THE CRATER TOP WITH AN MOBILE ARM, FIX IT AS A COOKIG UNDER WATER PRINCIPLE, GET THE WATER FROM ONE TUBE AND AT THE SIZZLE EFFECT OPEN ANOTHER WHEN CREATE WHIRLING BY THE DIAMETER AND TEH FORM AS FOR THE ECONOMIC SHOWER THE FORM THE DIRECTION AND THE ANGLES IF NECESSARY AND THE COLECTOR THAN THE PRINCIPLE OF THE STEAM TRAINS! IT COULD BE INTERESTING CHALLENGE AS ENSURE IN FACT A PRETTY LARGE AREA OF DOT KNOTS IF LOOK CAREFULLY THE ACTIEF VULCANOES WORLD MAP! THE TIME INSERT IN OF WATER THE QUANTITY AND THE COLECTION TIME TEST IT IN SOME SMALLER MODEL WITH CAREFULLY SEARCH THE PHI VALUE ON THE CILINDER AS MR MUGUREL SERBAN OF BUCAREST SAID THAT WROG PREDIMENSIONATE CILINDERS AT BOILING POINT WITHOUT TAKING IN ACOUNT THE CORRECT VALUE OF THE pHI NUMBER COULD DETERMINE THE LONG TERM USE OF THE CORECT DIMENSIONED RECIPIENTS OR THEYRE EXLOSION SONNER THAN THE TEORETICAL BOILING LIMITS BECAUSE OF INCORECT SUBSTANCE EXPANSION INSODE AND THE RECIPIENTS VOLUME …WHEN HAVE SEEN THE DISASTER IN jAPAN I WAS WISHING THAT THE PROJECT ENGINEERS KNOW THAT SMALL DETAILS! THE TACT TIME BETWEEN TWO WATER JETS AND COLECTION TIME TO KEEP SAFE THE PROCESS?

    Report Post »  
  • flatbroke
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 6:53pm

    Sounds like a lot of hot water to me!LOL

    Report Post » flatbroke  
  • billvassos
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 6:28pm

    One more thing, would cooling the crust of the earth on a mass scale cause and adverse results? Because the crust woukd be loosing heat or its energy…..

    Report Post » billvassos  
  • billvassos
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 6:17pm

    Dont know what to think of this….is fracturing rock in our crust a good idea? What would happen in the event of an earthquake? Technically we could do this in our back yards?!? We all have earth under our feet, why not drill in every back yard and build a mini geo thermal plant? Would be better than relying on the grid and paying for energy right?

    Report Post » billvassos  
    • Lesbian Packing Hollow Points
      Posted on January 16, 2012 at 7:01pm

      You do realize that the eggshell thin crust floats atop a core of molten nickel and iron, right? It cracks and melts and fuses again all the time. It’s not possible to cool a huge chunk of the core so that it solidifies. The crust can never “run aground”. By definition, it is the ground.

      There are two worst-case scenarios here:

      1) They expend all this energy for the experiment and they can’t get enough energy back out to make it profitable.

      2) They fracture the crust deep and wide enough to reawaken the volcano.

      I’m not gonna lose any sleep over the mathematic probabilities of #2.

      Report Post » Lesbian Packing Hollow Points  
    • Chuck Stein
      Posted on January 16, 2012 at 11:33pm

      Sure, we could do this in our backyards. Problem is that unless your backyard is close to the Earth’s heat (say, in northwestern Nevada where the crust is pulled thin from the drift of tectonic plates or near a volcano where the magma has risen through the crust), then the drilling expense is prohibitive.
      I hope this project works. Maybe it could even be developed into a way of halting or delaying eruptions of volcanoes near population centers.

      Report Post »  
  • A Conservatarian
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 6:06pm

    … messing with a dormant volcano … smart move.

    Report Post » A Conservatarian  
  • Tower7_TRUTH
    Posted on January 16, 2012 at 5:46pm

    What Really Happened in Japan ?
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7U5uOzjLI0c&feature=related

    Report Post » Tower7_TRUTH  

Sign In To Post Comments! Sign In

Sign Up For Our Newsletter!

Glenn Beck Radio

Listen to Glenn Beck 24/7 Listen Now
Restoring Love