The Cascade Mountain region near the AltaRock Newberry EGS site in Oregon.

“I’m sorry, sir, but you’re going to have to hunt elsewhere. This is private land for the Newberry enhanced geothermal project. Unauthorized people are not allowed.”

As the hunter maneuvered his truck back down the crater, the atmosphere in the vans tingled with excitement. Finally, the famed enhanced geothermal system (EGS) research project that has been shrouded in mystery and rumor would be revealed to the 20 geologists, engineers and students attending the 2014 Geothermal Resources Council Annual Meeting and Geothermal Energy Association Expo in Portland, Oregon.

Chasing the EGS Dream

The Newberry site is protected for good reason: The 15-square-mile area is home to at least 2,000 megawatts of potential geothermal resource capacity, according to SMU Geothermal Lab founder David Blackwell. That’s a lot of hot rock waiting to be exploited if AltaRock’s EGS technology reaches fruition.

“That is why Newberry is so critical,” said Blackwell. “What happens there could affect the entire region, which has more than 5 GW of potential.”

Not only would the project affect Oregon, it would impact the geothermal industry worldwide. In the U.S. alone, there is more than 345,100 MW of potential EGS capacity, according to conservative estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey. In other words, it could realistically replace a significant amount of flexible, baseload fossil fuel sources. 

“When the technology breakthrough comes, EGS potential could very well be many times more than human consumption,” said Pall Valdimarsson, manager of research and development of the geothermal competence center at Atlas Copco.

What makes EGS so different is that rather than traditional geothermal that drills into an existing reservoir, EGS involves drilling into dry hot rock and injecting fluid to create a reservoir. 

AltaRock chose Newberry as its testing site for several reasons. Most importantly, the ground is very hot and has low permeability, so it will be fairly easy to stimulate a reservoir in order to take advantage of that heat. The site also had several abandoned drilled wells, which equated to significant savings. And its base of operations is fairly close to a city, Bend, for supplies and potential employees, but far enough away from the population so that they are not affected by sight or sound.

The Process

On the surface, it doesn’t look like much is going on at the Newberry site aside from some noisy generators, a couple large 800-ft-deep pools of water and an injection well — but that’s because all the real action is taking place underground.   

The injection well at the AltaRock Newberry EGS site.

AltaRock is working on a multi-zone stimulation process. Water from the pools is injected into the well at a pressure of about 2,000 psi to stimulate tiny millimeter-sized openings, or slips, in the rock, which eventually spider out to create a zone, according to Trenton Cladouhos, senior vice president of research and development at AltaRock. This is a much different process than fossil fuel fracking, which injects a slurry of water, chemicals and sand at much higher pressures of up to 10,000 psi to create large damaging breaks in the rock. 

Once a zone is complete, pressure is dropped to about 1,000 psi and a diverter made of biodegradable plastic is injected into the well to temporarily fill the slips. Pressure is then increased again to 2,000 psi to start a new fracture zone, and then a new batch of diverter is made to plug up holes at hotter temperatures. 

Different types of diverter can withstand different temperatures. As the well grows deeper, and hotter, a different batch is made to withstand the temperature.

The process repeats until all zones are created, and water flow is then stopped to allow the well to heat up. It takes about one week for the diverter to break down into water and CO2.

Bump in the Road

The road to the injection well has been anything but smooth, said Cladouhos; in fact, it was delayed nearly two years. In 2012, the AltaRock team found that the casing on one of its inherited Davenport wells had cracked, leaking nearly 10 million gallons of water. 

“The well had sat for nearly four years untouched, and it was not as strong as we had thought,” said Cladouhos. “A horizontal crack formed due to the pressure, which created a minor seismic event.”

Seismograph record of passing trains vs. EGS stimulation. Credit: AltaRock

That event was the highest the project has even experienced at 2.4, which is “way below what you can feel,” said AltaRock communications director David Stowe. AltaRock has a strict seismicity protocol, which is closely observed by the U.S. Department of Energy.

During a 3.0 event, workers will turn the well pressure down and even stop operations. To monitor seismicity levels, AltaRock installed an advanced microseismic network system of about 20 seismometers that surround the project. Due to their sensitivity, some seismometers were placed underground in 800-ft wells with steel and cement casing — these pick up about 10 times less surface noise than above-ground seismometers. A cable runs from the underground technology to a solar- and battery-powered monitoring station near the borehole. Each seismometer station gathers information, which is then organized by fracture zone and displayed on a computer screen on the project site, said Cladouhos.

The site of an underground seismometer near the project site.

Once the injection well casing problem was identified and addressed, the AltaRock team installed a new steel-encased casing that is built to withstand higher pressures.

If all goes well in the coming weeks, AltaRock will continue this injection process until they reach about 6,000 to 10,000 feet, conduct flow testing and then close for the winter. In spring 2015, it will start drilling production wells. 

“Enhanced geothermal systems are the big carrot,” said Valdimarsson. “Right now we can see the tree, but not the forest.”

In a case of first impression for the agency involving growing wind integration burdens on a utility located outside a regional power market, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has ruled that Public Service Company of Colorado is entitled to impose new…

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VecoPlan — complete systems for shredding, screening, separation, conveying, metered feeding of biomass prior to conversion to advanced biofuels

West Salem — Introducing WSM BioPrep — Biomass Feedstock Preparation Machines Systems

VecoPlan — complete systems for shredding, screening, separation, conveying, metered feeding of biomass prior to conversion to advanced biofuels

West Salem — Introducing WSM BioPrep — Biomass Feedstock Preparation Machines Systems

In China, approval of Syngenta’s GMO corn is expected in the coming days. Beijing has blocked the import of the corn, including the DDGS produced from the corn as a byproduct of ethanol production, which has led to a steep loss in demand and therefore prices for DDGS. The North American Export Grain Association says the approval should have come in 2011 but was held up. Now that Ukraine is suffering a corn shortage, meaning fewer options to import from besides the US, may be a reason for approving the GMO now rather than earlier.

VecoPlan — complete systems for shredding, screening, separation, conveying, metered feeding of biomass prior to conversion to advanced biofuels

West Salem — Introducing WSM BioPrep — Biomass Feedstock Preparation Machines Systems

In New York state, under a Consent Order, the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) imposed a $181,000 penalty on Buckeye Albany Terminal, LLC for air permit violations, relating to the transfer of ethanol at its Port of Albany facility, DEC Commissioner Joe Martens announced.

The violations did not result in any material air quality impacts. The order requires Buckeye to institute operational changes to ensure full compliance with state air regulations. Part of the penalty, $145,000, will be put toward an Environmental Benefit Project (EBP). DEC will work with the community to identify the EBP.

Buckeye owns and operates an ethanol truck loading rack on property leased from the Albany Port District Commission at the Port of Albany. The truck loading rack transfers ethanol from storage tanks to trucks for distribution. In early May, DEC and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency staff conducted an inspection of the facility and discovered that an air pollution control device, called a vapor combustion unit, at the truck loading rack was not operating properly. The unit controls hydrocarbon emissions by heating vapors to high temperatures, which breaks them down into carbon dioxide and water.

Inspectors found that Buckeye had failed to supplement the vapor combustion unit with natural gas, which is necessary to ensure the breakdown of hydrocarbons. Although facility-wide emissions limits were met, DEC initiated enforcement action to ensure the company complies with all provisions of its Title V Air permit.

In Canada, Natural Resources Canada failed to spend $298.6 million that was budgeted for biofuels, green energy, energy efficiency and technology plans last year, yet somehow spent more than $438 million on programs for oil and gas research and market development, including research on how to clean up spills. Of the total, $113 million went unspent on biodiesel programs because of “poor production economics and uncertainty around blending mandates and incentive programs in the U.S.,” said the Natural Resources Canada Performance Report.

VecoPlan — complete systems for shredding, screening, separation, conveying, metered feeding of biomass prior to conversion to advanced biofuels

West Salem — Introducing WSM BioPrep — Biomass Feedstock Preparation Machines Systems

Tell us about your organization and it’s role in the advanced bioeconomy.

PANGEA is a leader in the promotion of technology transfer and investment into Africa’s growing bioeconomy, the key opportunity to leapfrog the continent beyond fossil fuels much in the same way mobile phones revolutionised the region. We focus on promoting our members, creating a global network and providing value addition to project development.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

PANGEA in 2015 is breaking out beyond its traditional policy-oriented focus, away from Europe, and looking more toward supporting project development and implementation on the ground.

With key partnerships under the Sustainable Energy for All umbrella, we’re working to direct private sector efforts into the creation of sustainable businesses and industries by matchmaking, providing project development support, and of course linking to finance while supporting necessary policy infrastructure.

We also have new partnerships, again under SE4ALL, focused on bringing bioenergy to the rural electrification space through our relationship with the Alliance for Rural Electrification.

We’re bridging the finance gap with our key partner Everest Energy in the Netherlands, working in the midcap area of $2MM to $50MM while helping to lower investment risk and ensuring strong business development from the start.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?

The industry must stop apologizing for itself and get to the business of implementing projects. Policy will not set the path, so private sector must jump in head first to demonstrate the economic, social and environmental viability of the businesses we’re building. Policy will follow. Create the market, follow the demand.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change?

I would snap my fingers so that investors could see that there is no other choice than to invest in the transition to the advanced bioeconomy. It is at the heart of everything else that makes the global economy operate and therefore requires a strong foundation, and guts, to get it in place for a successful future.

Of all the reasons that influenced you to join the Advanced Bioeconomy industry, what single reason stands out for you as still being compelling and important to you.

If we’re going to survive on this planet, we must at last treat it with the respect it deserves so that it can continue to function and we can continue to thrive in it. Money can and is made by doing just that, which is what makes the whole system work and is the only way to a truly sustainable future.

Where are you from? 

San Francisco, California.

What was your undergraduate major in college, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway? 

Montana State University, livestock management. I was a cowgirl at heart and wanted the knowledge and skills to achieve to live that life. It gave me the background I needed to get into agricultural journalism, which has led me everywhere else (lobbying, business development, creating businesses).

Who do you consider your mentors. What have you learned from them?

Steve Werblow of Ashland, Ore. trained me up as an agricultural journalist at the tender age of 19 and helped me to secure my first magazine sales, setting me down the path that brings me to where I am today.

Hillary Clinton has broken just about every glass ceiling there is, never gave up in the face of tragedy or adversity or pain, and has always put the good of the people first.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?

When you fall off, get right back in the saddle. It’s the key to being an entrepreneur–to fail, learn from your mistakes, and try again to do it better–but it’s also the key to life. Never give up.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry? 

I’m an avid horseback rider and soon-to-be breeder, following my mother and grandmother.
I absolutely love to cook, and thankfully people love to eat my food.

What 3 books would you take to read, if stranded on a desert island?

The Alchemist
Future of Love
2150

What books or articles are on your reading list right now, or you just completed and really enjoyed?

Hard Choices (Hillary Clinton)
Bring up the Bodies Wolf Hall (just finished them)

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?

Barbados!