Newberry Geothermal Project (BLM Oregon)
Kyla Grasso, Staff Geologist and David Stowe at Altarock Energy shows how her company is working on a project involving new technology, techniques, and advanced monitoring protocols for the purpose of testing the feasibility and viability of enhanced geothermal systems for renewable energy production.
AltaRock Energy is working on a project involving new technology, techniques, and advanced monitoring protocols for the purpose of testing the feasibility and viability of enhanced geothermal systems for renewable energy production.
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The project area is 22 miles south of Bend, Oregon, within the Bend-Fort Rock Ranger District of the Deschutes National Forest. The entire project is located on National Forest System Lands and would utilize an existing well pad and existing 10,000-ft deep geothermal well on a Federal geothermal lease. This geothermal project will enable the AltaRock Energy to create, test, and demonstrate the Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) reservoir technology and its potential for electricity generation in areas with underground heat but little or no natural water. The EGS projects produce electricity using heat extracted with engineered fluid flow paths in hot rocks. These pathways are developed by stimulating them with cold water injected into a well at a relatively high pressure.
Development and testing of the EGS will involve several components, including the development of an underground reservoir, one “stimulation” well to help create the reservoir and transport water to it, two production wells to transport heated water out of the reservoir, and an array of up to 20 surface and “down-hole” seismic monitoring devices.
Eleven of the monitoring sites are on Federal geothermal leases administered by the BLM, and nine are on lands that are administered by the U.S. Forest Service, including one surface micro-seismic monitoring station and a motion sensor installed in the Newberry National Monument.
