This fall, renewable energy startup AltaRock Energy plans to launch what could be the first U.S. demonstration of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). Though technical hurdles and the risk of induced earthquakes remain, experts say EGS promises to swiftly becoming a reliable, continuous source of carbon-neutral power around the globe.
America’s geothermal resource is “effectively unlimited,” according to U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu, and AltaRock Energy President and Chief Technology Officer Susan Petty is on a mission to tap it. With federal policy support and increased access to capital, Petty believes geothermal could supply 20 percent or more of the nation’s electricity by 2043.
EGS goes deeper than traditional geothermal, and Petty will first test its ability to work in tandem with conventional systems like those at The Geysers in Northern California where rigs are set to arrive this spring to begin work on the demonstration project. Early AltaRock Energy investors – including technology giants Kleiner Perkins, Vinod Khosla, Paul Allen and Google – are sure to be watching.
I sat down with Petty to go beneath the surface for the latest on this emerging green technology.
As speculated about in June, the US Department of Interior has indeed announced plans to free up 197 million acres of federal land in 11 western states plus Alaska for geothermal energy development. The initiative, says the agency
could increase electric generation capacity from geothermal resources ten times over.
Some 118 million acres would be managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The remaining 79 million acres would be under the National Forest System.
All of it will be available for geothermal leasing for the first time ever -- just as soon as the 12 US governors sign off on the plan and the BLM issues its "Record of Decision."
Google likes to tout Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) as "the sleeping giant" of clean power. The United States Geological Survey (USGS), it seems, would wholeheartedly agree.
This week, USGS scientists released the agency’s first assessment in more than 30 years of the electric power generation potential of the nation’s geothermal resource.
What'd they find?
If developed, geothermal could generate 556,890 MW of electricity in the United States. That’s more than 200 times the installed geothermal capacity in the nation today, which stands at 2,500 MW.
