Posted on 10/06/2012 10:26:12 AM PDT by blam
Scientists Identify Massive Geothermal Hotspot In Utah
Consumer Energy Report
October 3,2012
Following two full years of study, scientists have confirmed that they have identified a huge geothermal hotspot in Utah, presenting the possibilities of exploitation of the find for cheap energy production purposes.
The area in question, covering an area of about 100 square miles, lies in Utah’s Black Rock Desert basin, south of Delta. During the two-year study, researchers drilled nine deep wells in the basin in an effort to confirm that water at very high temperatures was close enough to the surface to be manipulated, potentially allowing it to be converted relatively easily into steam to be used to generate electricity.
Rick Allis, director of the Utah Geological Survey, will report his team’s findings on the site to the energy industry at next week’s annual meeting of the Geothermal Resources Council in the hopes that it will generate interest among developers. The site itself offers particular benefits given its state of industrial development, including a large wind farm and a major transmission line currently serving a nearby coal-fired power plant.
“Our next step is to get (geothermal energy investors) interested in moving forward to develop this resource,” said Allis. (See more: Renewable Energy — Facts and Figures)
Karl Gawell, president of the Geothermal Energy Association, is expecting positive results from the release of the “exciting” news, citing potential breakthroughs in the way that humanity powers its societies if the site can be properly exploited. The local benefits are not lost on Gawell, either.
“It’s exciting for Utah, too, because it could eventually generate a lot of jobs and economic growth,” he said.
The 12th Imam is a Mormon?
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you our next roadless wilderness area.
Quick! How long before the Environmentalists/Nimby’s introduce a lawsuit to prevent exploitation of this potential energy source?
...3, 2, 1
...water vapor.
Yes, but utilizing this precious resource will serve to deplete the earth’s inner balance, thus contributing to interior cooling... 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...
Incidents of breast cancer will rise. Prostates will solidify. Dogs and cats will attack each other. Divorce rates will increase. Children will go hungry. Republicans and wealthy people will prosper. Lions, tigers, and bears... Oh my!!!!
I hope they work out the turbine corrosion problem
from dissolved mineral buildup
But the president will have to make the announcement/dedication from Nevada or some other state to try to avoid some of the uproar (a la Grand Escalante Staircase, or whatever it was with Clinton).
While this could be an economic boon to the area and add to our nation’s energy supply, I expect the environmentalists will find some lame excuse to block the development of this resource for years.
Unh-oh. This is where the next supervolcano caldera may erupt, rather like the one the blew up in Yellowstone 640,000 years ago, with many lesser ones since then.
Won’t matter if it could be exploited or not. But how do you think that black rock got there in the first place?
If I know my south of Delta UT, it is already a good example of roadless desert. As others are postulating, it would surely make a great “wilderness”.
Oh, anyone agree that “wilderness” is idiot speak for locking up useful land, minerals, access, rights, and general use, for the misguided goal of utopian living in prisons called cities?
Seems to me they could devise a system where they introduce the water to depth, that could be heated by the steam, thus expanding and driving a turbine above ground. As the steam passed the turbine, it could be channeled into a pool to be used again.
From your comments, it seems you were referencing them utilizing direct steam from the geothermal supply. That would contain far more minerals for corrosion.
I’m certainly no expert here, but this does seem like a way to cut down on mineral deposit problems.
” “Our next step is to get (geothermal energy investors) interested in moving forward to develop this resource,” “
Govt funding.
Didn’t they try this in Indonesia and ended up w/ a mud geyser that buried a town?
Heat exchangers. You don't circulate the groundwater to and from the turbines. You use the high-temperature groundwater to flash pure water into steam.
Magma incursions from the mantle below the crust. That whole area is volcanic. Mt Ranier? Mt St Helens?
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