USA, Nevada: Play Fairway Analysis Successful in Finding New Geothermal Resources

Machines being trained to enhance geothermal exploration in Nevada (UNR)

College of Science geologists are successful with new exploration methods for renewable energy

Jim Faulds, director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology in the College of Science, teaches a class on geothermal exploration in the Great Basin.

After a successful new method of geothermal exploration found two new geothermal systems in Nevada, the Department of Energy has awarded a major new grant to the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology to research and expand the use of machine-learning to make the exploration process even more effective.

The two successful discoveries in the Great Basin by the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology used a previously untried method for finding unknown, hidden geothermal resources, called blind systems, where there are no surface indications of hot water.

There had been no exploration previously in one of these areas and only minor previous exploration in the other. University of Nevada, Reno geologists in the Bureau of Mines and Geology used a number of other surface and subsurface clues in their methodology developed as part of their Department of Energy funded Play Fairway project that has been underway since 2014.

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The Nevada Division of Minerals and the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology will be exhibiting at the GRC Annual Meeting & Expo from 15-18 September in Palm Springs, California, USA.