Project to pour water into volcano to make power

Fuel Fix ^ | January 16, 2012 | Associated Press

[thackney]

Geothermal energy developers plan to pump 24 million gallons of water into the side of a dormant volcano in Central Oregon this summer to demonstrate new technology they hope will give a boost to a green energy sector that has yet to live up to its promise.

They hope 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.

Renewable energy has been held back by cheap natural gas, weak demand for power and waning political concern over global warming. 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.

Even so, the federal government, Google and other investors are interested enough to bet $43 million on the Oregon project. 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.

...

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

...

Hydroshearing is similar to the process known as hydraulic fracturing...

[Quick Shot]

Have one already in my backyard, A HEAT PUMP!!!!! Not as efficient though..

[UB355]

Mr boiler mechanic, in easy to understand terms water expands 1700 times when converting to steam. Am I correct ?

[GraceG]

[ The fun here is to figure out what angle the enviro-wackos will use to protest this. Because if it works, we know they will protest it.

Will it be man-made cooling of their Earth’s core? Perhaps the interruption of the Earth’s volcanic cycle? Plate tectonics? Destruction of the magnetic field?

Put your money down now. ]

Yeah, if this does work the environuts will not like giving the human race more energy....

They will howl with an intensity that will make their current howlings look like a wimper since they are such idiot luddites.

[GraceG]

[ The fun here is to figure out what angle the enviro-wackos will use to protest this. Because if it works, we know they will protest it.

Will it be man-made cooling of their Earth’s core? Perhaps the interruption of the Earth’s volcanic cycle? Plate tectonics? Destruction of the magnetic field?

Put your money down now. ]

Yeah, if this does work the environuts will not like giving the human race more energy....

They will howl with an intensity that will make their current howlings look like a wimper since they are such idiot luddites.

[bossmechanic]

I’m going to ask for a grant to build a giant funnel over the volcano so as to feed it water without using pumps.
Hope ya’ll support me on this.

[Erik Latranyi]

I assume there are no fault lines near this experiment?

[susannah59]

I don't think the government should be subsidizing it. If this is such a great idea, get private investors involved.

I'm also not by any stretch of the imagination an engineer. This whole idea sounds a bit scary to me, though. I don't think I'd want to be working on this project, or living near it, at least not at first. What if things don't go as planned, and the steam comes out somewhere other than where they think it will?

[cpdiii]

As you may have guessed, it's another one of Zero's harebrained 'green' wastes of taxpayer green. The company should rename itself Volyndra

Actually this is feasible. I do not have a problem with a "research well" to prove or disprove the application. However, if proved feasible, the government needs to stay the hell out of it. If the source can be tapped economically, private enterprise will do it. Otherwise it is just another hole in the ground for Obama to poor money into.

[thackney]

I assume there are no fault lines near this experiment?

I doubt any volcano in the world exists without fault lines nearby. Newberry is no exception.

Progression of ages of rhyolitic (silicic) lavas and calderas from McDermitt Caldera to Newberry and Yellowstone calderas (red circles: MC, NC, & YC). Numbers are ages in millions of years. KBML - Klamath—Blue Mountains Lineament, HLP - High Lava Plains, EDZ - Eugene—Denio Zone, BFZ - Brothers Fault Zone, SMF - Steens Mountain Fault, VF - Vale Fault, NNR - North Nevada Rift. White arrow shows direction of North American plate, edge of the craton is approximately along the Oregon—Idaho Border, triangles are Cascades volcanoes,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newberry_Volcano

[blackdog]

Yes, approximately with certain variables.

[celtic gal]

It it not nice to tinker with Mother Nature....she will get even...always does.....

[Sea Parrot]

And yet they scream about fracking.

Not nice to messs with mother nature. When contained to the bursting point, steam can be destructive beyond belief.

This was just from the explosion of a steam locomotive

“On the morning of March 18, 1912, dozens of men at the Southern Pacific yard in San Antonio were working around an engine of the Galveston, Harrisburg & San Antonio Railroad. The men were firing up the engine to test it and ready the train for service. At 8:55 a.m., the boiler exploded, sending the engine and many tons of railroad parts flying in every direction. The pressure wave and flying debris leveled the nearby railroad shops and rippled out into the neighborhood, snapping trees and smashing into homes. As the explosion spent itself, shattered metal and human remans rained down for blocks in every direction. The front end of the engine, almost intact, came to earth seven blocks away, flattening a house and killing a woman inside. The force of the explosion could be felt miles away.

In photo at link, looks like a GBU-43/B MOAB went off.
https://www.tsl.state.tx.us/exhibits/railroad/fight/explosion.html

[JimRed]

IIRC, there are sci-fi horror movies that start something like that...

[RinaseaofDs]

What’s hilarious about this is the fact that they are betting the ranch on water supply.

This scheme can only be perpetrated in areas with a surfeit of water. You can use salt water instead, but eventually you have to capture the steam. Eventually, you have to turn that ratwheel to get the rotor to turn through the stator.

All those impurities in the steam will eat turbines like they were twinkies at a grow house.

But hey, Thorium based nuclear works, and has only one downside - you have to actually build the plants in order to get the power from them. Good thing a really big one would be about the size of a small Costco.

[RainMan]

If you go to Yellowstone, ask any ranger and you will see this experiment already took place in a pilot environment, and was proven a failure. 100 years ago they had the bright idea of heating the cabins and lodges at Yellowstone with some of the naturally occurring hot water from the geysers. They pumped water in and harvested the hot. They noticed a steady increase in earthquakes and realized that they were screwing with natures delicate balance under the park ... they stopped, and the earthquakes went back to their previous level.

[woodbutcher1963]

This is in the Newbury National Monument. I am surprised that some environmental group has not sued to stop this in federal court.

Plus 24 million gallons of water is a lot of water to pour down a hole when you are living in the high desert. The people of LaPine , Gilchrist and Bend depend on that water in the summer to DRINK.

There is not a lot of snow pack up in the Cascades so far this winter. They do not have much water to waste. They could be in a drought this coming summer.

[enraged]

I thought there was a moritorium on ground water drilling in the South Central / Descutes water districts. You can’t drill for Domestic or farm use, how would this get permitted?

[thackney]

All those impurities in the steam will eat turbines like they were twinkies at a grow house.

Just like in a nuclear power plant, you don't have to take the steam directly from the heat source to the turbine. Closed loop circulations with intermediate heat exchangers are very likely to be used.

[TheOldLady]

Click the Pic

End Freepathons!
Sheesh!! Do It Now!

Donate today
SIR! MONTHLY, SIR!

Sponsors will donate $10
For each new monthly sign-up

[stylin19a]

this sure sounds like a “here, hold my beer” moment