[R-G] Energy search goes underground

[Richard Menec]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070804/ap_on_sc/drilling_for_heat;_ylt=AimvR7S5HQJ45tcBd7nyrF6s0NUE

Energy search goes underground

By ELIANE ENGELER and ALEXANDER G. HIGGINS, Associated Press Writers

Sat Aug 4, 12:30 PM ET


BASEL, Switzerland - When tremors started cracking walls and bathroom tiles 
in this Swiss city on the Rhine, the engineers knew they had a problem. "The 
glass vases on the shelf rattled, and there was a loud bang," Catherine 
Wueest, a teashop owner, recalls. "I thought a truck had crashed into the 
building."

But the 3.4 magnitude tremor on the evening of Dec. 8 was no ordinary act of 
nature: It had been accidentally triggered by engineers drilling deep into 
the Earth's crust to tap its inner heat and thus break new ground - 
literally - in the world's search for new sources of energy.

Basel was wrecked by an earthquake in 1365, and no tremor, man-made or 
other, is to be taken lightly. After more, slightly smaller tremors 
followed, Basel authorities told Geopower Basel to put its project on hold.

But the power company hasn't given up. It's in a race with a firm in 
Australia to be the first to generate power commercially by boiling water on 
the rocks three miles underground.

On paper, the Basel project looks fairly straightforward: Drill down, shoot 
cold water into the shaft and bring it up again superheated and capable of 
generating enough power through a steam turbine to meet the electricity 
needs of 10,000 households, and heat 2,700 homes.

Scientists say this geothermal energy, clean, quiet and virtually 
inexhaustible, could fill the world's annual needs 250,000 times over with 
nearly zero impact on the climate or the environment.

A study released this year by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said 
if 40 percent of the heat under the United States could be tapped, it would 
meet demand 56,000 times over. It said an investment of $800 million to $1 
billion could produce more than 100 gigawatts of electricity by 2050, 
equaling the combined output of all 104 nuclear power plants in the U.S.

"The resource base for geothermal is enormous," Professor Jefferson Tester, 
the study's lead author, told The Associated Press.

But there are drawbacks - not just earthquakes but cost. A so-called hot 
rock well three miles deep in the United States would cost $7 million to $8 
million, according to the MIT study. The average cost of drilling an oil 
well in the U.S. in 2004 was $1.44 million, according to the U.S. Energy 
Information Administration.

Also, rocks tapped by drilling would lose their heat after a few decades and 
new wells would have to be drilled elsewhere.

Bryan Mignone, an energy and climate-change specialist with the Brookings 
Institution in Washington, D.C., said alternative sources of energy face 
stiff price competition.

"Currently in the U.S. new technologies in the power sector are competing 
against coal, which is very cheap," he said.

Humans have used heat from the earth for thousands of years. The ancient 
Romans drew on hot springs for bathing and heating their homes. Geothermal 
energy is in use in 24 countries, including the U.S.

But those sources - geysers and hot springs - are close to the surface. Hot 
dry rock technology, also called "enhanced geothermal systems" or EGS, 
drills down to where the layers of granite are close to 400 degrees 
Fahrenheit. The equipment is similar to that used for oil, but needs to go 
much deeper, and be wider to accommodate the water cycle.

Hot dry rock technology is meant to stay well away from the 99 percent of 
the Earth's interior that is over 1,000 degrees.

Aeneas Wanner, a Swiss expert, says that if you imagine Earth as an egg, "a 
bore hole would only scratch the shell of the egg a little bit."

The United States led the way in demonstrating the concept with the Los 
Alamos geothermal project at Fenton Hill, N.M. The project begun in the 
1970s demonstrated that drilling 15,000 feet deep was possible and that 
energy could then be extracted.

But the project came to a halt in 2000 when it ran out of funds. Meanwhile, 
the MIT report said, problems encountered in testing have been solved or can 
be managed - such as controlling how the water flows underground or limiting 
earthquakes and chemical interactions between water and rock.

Backers in the United States hope government funding will increase as oil 
and gas prices rise. But Steve Chalk, deputy assistant secretary for 
renewable energy, said the Department of Energy won't spend more money 
beyond the $2 million it has already allocated to hot rock technology.

However, he said the MIT study, which was funded by the Department of 
Energy, serves as a basis for studying the idea further.

Major energy companies, including Chevron Corp., Exxon Mobil Corp. and 
American Electric Power, told the AP they are following the research but not 
investing in it.

"This is an interesting technology for Chevron and we are currently 
evaluating its potential," said spokesman Alexander Yelland.

In Basel, the first shaft was bored last year by a 190-foot-tall drilling 
rig towering above nearby apartment buildings. Water was pumped down the 
injection well in the test phase in December, and as expected, it heated to 
above 390 F as it seeped through the layers of rock below.

But that's where the water remains for the time being; it caused the rock 
layers to slip, causing the tremors and rumbles that spooked the 
townspeople.

Geopower Basel, had forecast some rock slippage. In fact, it said the 
location on top of a fault line - the upper Rhine trench - was an advantage 
because it meant the heat was closer to the Earth's surface.

But with $51 million already spent, drilling stopped and the official launch 
date was moved back from 2009 to 2012.

Still to be drilled are the two wells that would suck the pressurized, 
superheated water out of the cracks and up to the surface to create steam 
for driving a turbine and generating electricity. The water, having cooled 
to around 340 degrees, would heat hospitals, public buildings and homes 
before being pumped back into the ground for another waste-free, gas-free 
cycle.

The rival project near the southern Australian town of Innamincka faces more 
benign geological conditions and less population. Its target date for 
operations is now two years ahead of Basel's, aiming to produce 40 megawatts 
of electricity by the end of 2010, enough to supply over 30,000 households.

Experts say hot rock geothermal energy can operate 24 hours a day and 
doesn't depend on sun or wind. But it's decades away from serious rivalry 
with existing energy sources.

Susan Petty, one of the 18 co-authors of the MIT study, works for Black 
Mountain Technology, a company promoting hot rock energy. She predicts that 
10 percent of the world's power could come from geothermal sources in the 
next 50 years, from the current 0.3 percent, rising to half in around 100 
years.

Promoters of the technology say that while geothermal drilling is costly, 
it's cheaper to run once it's in place. The MIT study said it could provide 
electricity at competitive prices. Price comparisons indicate it could be 
cheaper than other forms of renewable energy, including biomass and solar 
power. "The outlook is very good that we can do it," said Karl Gawell, 
executive director of the Washington D.C.-based Geothermal Energy 
Association.

But others are waiting for proof that it's worth the expenditure.

"This technology sounds very promising," said Nick Nuttall, chief- spokesman 
of the U.N. Environment Program, "but let's wait and see."

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