Artificial Geothermal Energy – An Experiment that Works

Success is Around the Corner

Though artificial or engineered geothermal energy is still in an experimental stage of development, there are a few small commercial plants in operation:

• Japan demonstrated this capability on the side of a volcano, at Hijiori. It converted enough heat in a test run of one year to support a 130 KW power plant.
• Australia has some bright prospects as the continent has widespread sources of radioactive heat rock that is shallow, cracked, and under stress. In the Cooper Basin there exists a 386 square mile area of granite with recorded temperatures in excess of 450 degrees F. Named Habanero-1 and 2, wells have already been drilled and water is circulating. The power station, currently under construction, will generate thousands of MW of electricity.
• France has a plant in Soultz-sous-Forets that produces 1 MW of electricity and Germany produces over 2 MW at its location in Landau. Both of these locations could increase their capacity with the drilling of additional wells.
• In the U.S., there are demonstration projects at the Geysers in California and at Desert Peak and Brady in Nevada. In each of these cases, engineered geothermal processes will be salvaging dry wells, thereby boosting power production of existing natural geothermal power plants. Further, the U.S. Geological Survey has plans to demonstrate this technology in the Midwest and hot rock basins east of the Mississippi River, with a goal of having stand alone power plants by 2015.

The Future of Artificial Geothermal Energy

As with any developing technology with limited successes to date, the challenge is attracting the investors to support full scale construction. Studies have been done indicating that the U.S. could receive 100,000 MW of electricity from artificial (or engineered) geothermal energy with an estimated $1 billion in development over a 15 year period. Though that compares favorably to the cost of a clean coal plant, there will need to be other factors to come into play before such an undertaking is adopted, factors which are looming right over the planning horizon:

• Competing uses for water will make hydroelectric power less available.
• As older environmentally noncompliant coal plants retire or if “cap and trade” takes effect, the cost of coal will increase.
• Retirements of nuclear power plants will increase and the time required to rebuild replacement plants will be extensive.
• Energy sources able to generate electricity 24/7 will decrease, providing the opportunity for geothermal as a viable alternative.

The keys to engineered geothermal energy becoming commercially viable rests on improved engineering, successful demonstration projects, and lower costs. All of these are possible if the industry is successful in attracting investment capital. Even if geothermal does not grow to its potential, according to the EIA, geothermal energy will generate 4 percent of the country’s electricity.

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