Cleantech Update

As a noxious greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide seems an unlikely candidate for generating renewable energy. But a new, U.S. Department of Energy-backed project on the New Mexico-Arizona border soon could put CO2 to use to extract heat from subterranean rock formations to power geothermal electric plants. GreenFire Energy of Utah won a $2 million DOE grant last fall to launch the project, which will tap underground CO2 deposits at St. John’s Field, a 235,000-acre area along the border in New Mexico’s Catron County and Apache County in Arizona. GreenFire plans to build a 3- to-5-megawatt electric plant at Springerville, Ariz., about 18 miles west of New Mexico, to prove the technology. If successful, the company would start constructing 50-megawatt modular units on both sides of the border, said Randy Balik, GreenFire’s vice president of business development. “If we succeed, we’ll be the first ones to produce electric power on a utility scale using CO2,” Balik said. “The technology i...

AltaRock Energy , which received $6.25 million from the U.S. Department of Energy for the first demonstration project of enhanced geothermal energy, is facing major delays according to an article by James Glanz of the New York Times. Unidentified scientists told the New York Times that after two months of drilling the company has only reached a depth of 4000 feet. AltaRock started drilling at 3200 feet, the bottom of one of the older holes at The Geysers in Northern California. According to the New York Times, the drill bit snapped off at least once and the company has had to start drilling the hole again. AltaRock originally expected to reach a final depth of 12,000 feet after 50 days of drilling. Enhanced geothermal energy appears to hold great promise for replacing electric power plants run on fossil fuels. It is, however, not without problems. The initial investment needed to develop enhanced geothermal is steep. In addition, technological advances are needed for development...

17 August 2009 (San Francisco Chrinicle) On a high ridge in the Mayacamas Mountains, a drill slowly bores into the earth to test a new way to generate electricity. The test, by a Bay Area company called AltaRock Energy, could give the world another source of renewable energy, a valuable weapon in the fight against global warming. It could also trigger earthquakes in a corner of California that already shakes most every day, a prospect that is jangling the nerves of some nearby homeowners. AltaRock has chosen this ridge to try a new form of geothermal power, using the heat of the Earth to produce energy. The surrounding hills -- in an area known as The Geysers, about 70 miles north of San Francisco -- hold more than a dozen older geothermal plants that tap underground pockets of steam to turn turbines and generate electricity. But AltaRock will drill below the steam pockets, burrowing into deep rocks hotter than 500 degrees Fahrenheit. The company, based in Sausalito, will fracture ...