Newberry Volcano Caldera, Oregon.
The federal environmental assessment predicts there will be no impact on local groundwater quality or quantity from the project.
Will Osborn is AltaRock's Project Manager at the Newberry EGS experiment.
"We're enhancing the productivity of the geology of the earth to produce hot water," according to Osborn.
Since there's no water down below, they'll pump cold water down.
That will create a water storage area nearly 2 miles underground by breaking the rock with high pressure water.
"We use the natural fractures in the rock. So when we inject water at high pressure we're opening up the natural fractures in the rock and just causing those to slip a little bit. When they slip, the irregularities in the rock will cause those cracks to remain open," Osborn said.Those tiny cracks would become the storage.
Enough fractures, they hope, to store 50 to 75 million gallons of water down there.
"We're enhancing the productivity of the geology of the earth to produce hot water," according to Osborn.
Since there's no water down below, they'll pump cold water down.
That will create a water storage area nearly 2 miles underground by breaking the rock with high pressure water.
"We use the natural fractures in the rock. So when we inject water at high pressure we're opening up the natural fractures in the rock and just causing those to slip a little bit. When they slip, the irregularities in the rock will cause those cracks to remain open," Osborn said.Those tiny cracks would become the storage.
Enough fractures, they hope, to store 50 to 75 million gallons of water down there.
