USA, California:

Geothermal Update: What’s New at The Geysers (KQED)

(Courtesy Andrew Alden/KQED)

The Geysers geothermal field, in the Coast Range near Clear Lake, has been supplying California with clean electricity for 55 years.

Over time, the output of this field has slowly declined, raising questions about how long we could rely on it.

But a recent experiment offers confidence that we can keep drawing power from The Geysers for many decades to come, by tapping its superheated deeper layers.

The Geysers geothermal field as a whole loses capacity by a percent or two each year. In recent years, Calpine has been exploring the northwest end of the geothermal field, where unfractured rocks as hot as 750 degrees are found. The results from its latest experiment are encouraging.

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