Volcano power plan gets U.S. go-ahead

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These 17 blue tanks hold over 300,000 gallons of water to supply the stimulation pumps

The twin lakes within the Newberry Caldera

$Part of the borescope image of well NWG 55-29, showing a large number of fractures on the ...$

Part of the borescope image of well NWG 55-29, showing a large number of fractures on the walls of the wellbore

A borehole seismometer being prepared for insertion into a deep well

Photograph of the Newberry EGS demonstration site

Preexisting cracks in the deep rock are expanded by hydroshearing. The original, essentially closed crack appears at the left. In the center, the crack is opened by water pressure, whereupon the faces slip a bit along the length of the crack. When the water is removed, the crack faces no longer match, so the crack remains permeable to the flow of water

The Newberry EGS project will involve three stages of stimulation, or crack network expansion, at different depths to effectively use the power of the hot volcanic rock

The Newberry EGS demonstration project is located near the boundaries of the Newberry National Volcanic Monument

Control room for the Newberry EGS pumping station

One of the two stimulation pumps which are now powering the hydroshearing process in NWG 55-29

Well NWG 55-29 being drilled in 2008

Artist's impression of an EGS electric power plant. Cold water is pumped down the left well, heated in the hot rock fractures of the reservoir, then returned to the surface by the production wells to supply the power plant (Image: DOE)

A plan to tap the thermal energy of the Newberry Volcano is under way (Photo: Joshua Schreiner)

Article Summary

Having successfully negotiated the challenging regulatory slopes of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Department of Energy, and a host of Oregon state agencies, the Newberry Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) demonstration project is in the process of creating a new geothermal reservoir in central Oregon. The core of the new reservoir is a two mile (3.2 km) deep well drilled about four miles (6.3 km) from the center of Newberry Volcano. The rock surrounding the wellbore reaches temperatures in the order of 600° F (315° C), and is nearly impermeable to water. That, however, is about to change.

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