A new company pursuing an advanced geothermal energy technology has had to suspend its first attempt to drill a deep well in Northern California.

AltaRock Energy on Wednesday said it ran into problems during drilling for a demonstration project, "resulting from geologic anomalies particular to the formation" at the Geysers Geothermal field.

Basically, AltaRock Energy's drill, which needs to get about 12,000 feet deep, is stuck at about 4,000 feet, unable to penetrate a surface-rock formation known as caprock. That problem is on top of an already existing work stoppage called for by the U.S. Energy Department to determine whether AltaRock might cause earthquakes by drilling so deep into the Earth's crust. With that review still pending and AltaRock stuck on caprock, the future of this flagship geothermal project is unclear.

The project, said to be budgeted at $17 million, was partially funded by a Department of Energy grant given to several companies to explore the viability of enhanced geothermal systems. Sausalito, Calif.-based AltaRock was funded by Google and venture capital company Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers.

Although technical difficulties are normal in drilling projects, the progress of AltaRock is significant because it is one of few companies pursuing enhanced, or engineered, geothermal systems. It's a technology that holds great promise but that has raised safety concerns.

Enhanced geothermal power is one of the most enticing types of renewable energy since, like solar power, it taps an existing heat source rather than burning some kind of organic fuel that we have to make or collect.

Traditional geothermal power draws on naturally occurring underground hot-water reservoirs to make electricity. With enhanced geothermal systems, wells are dug a few miles underground, and rock formations are fractured. Then water is injected into the wells, heated by the rock, and pulled back up. That hot water is converted to steam to turn an electricity turbine.

(Source: New York Times, CNET News)

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written by MalloryBanks, July 09, 2010

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