Technology:

Could A Volcano Power America? (Popular Science)

Obsidian Flow At Newberry Volcano
(Courtesy Joshua Schreiner/Popular Science)

In October, at the Deschutes National Forest in central Oregon, a team of scientists and engineers began pumping 11 million gallons of water underground, right near the caldera of the famed Newberry Volcano. The Northwest weather was a cool 50 degrees most days, about the same temperature as the water the engineers drove, up to 375 gallons a minute, 10,000 feet into the ground.

There, deep in the earth’s crust, the temperature reaches more than 600 degrees. That’s what the engineers were pumping for: If everything goes according to plan, a company called AltaRock Energy will suck the super-heated water from underground and use it to spin turbines and juice the area with renewable power.

AltaRock Energy will have a booth at the GEA Expo run in conjunction with the GRC Annual Meeting, Sept. 29-Oct. 2 at the MGM Grand, Las Vegas, Nevada.

Read More.....