Generating Geothermal
The goal of this page is to enable you to ask important questions of our public officials and the developer, whoever that may end up being – at this point the obvious choice would be Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC.
There are three principal ways to use geothermal energy to generate electricity. All use some method to convert heat energy into electrical energy. For our purposes, you only really need to have some understanding of the low-temperature binary process. This seems to be the process presently proposed by Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC.
The LLC is looking to develop a 10 MW power plant on an 800 acre BLM mineral lease. You may want to print a drawing of this from the “Useful Files” page. At the most basic level, a company would need to drill supply wells to furnish it with hot water. In the factory facility, some of that heat energy (in this case, a binary process) is removed and converted to electricity. That water, which is now cooler, is re-injected back into the ground. The hot supply wells and the cooler injection wells must be at some distance from each other, perhaps close to a mile or so. The idea is that the same water would circulate back from the injection wells, pick up heat again and the process repeated.
We feel that this approach would endanger the water supply of the area due to the huge volumes of water involved and the complexities of the underground faulted water system in this valley, AMONG A HOST OF OTHER CONCERNS. It is NOT like the Geyer’s plant in California, where super-heated steam comes to the surface at pressure. As we said at the beginning, we support geothermal energy production where the risks are in line with the reward. We contend that is not the case here.
Critical Reading
- Here is a good site to illustrate a binary generation approach to making electricity. This company has been mentioned in meetings in the context of the Mt. Princeton project, but we have no information about who Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC might use: http://www.rasertech.com/geothermal/geothermal-multimedia/geothermal-process-animation-video
- Expectations for the success of this approach, were it to be attempted here, may be far too high. The same facility in Utah, put on line about 8 months ago, has experienced major shortfalls in production. Without more data one cannot make an informed judgment, but we have experienced people who believe this project will never live up to expectations. It was supposed to be a 10 MW facility: http://www.allbusiness.com/energy-utilities/renewable-energy-geothermal/12984574-1.html
Dr. Henderson, the scientist for Mt. Princeton Geothermal LLC, made the following observations, among others, about this very binary process at a meeting held in Montrose Oct. 19th, 2007 at the Geothermal Investor’s Forum as to the disadvantages of binary power production:
- Space required can exceed 10 acres of surface land.
- Most injection geothermal plants use vast amounts of water.
- Aquifer contamination is an ever present danger of present methods
We ask Dr. Henderson, what’s changed?
Call to Action
Does this look like a "greenhouse" to you?
We feel that both the predictable and unforeseeable consequences of the construction of this facility far outweigh the hoped-for benefits. Click here to read about the recent dismal results from a similar plant in Utah. This failing plant used the same technology and a company Dr. Henderson has invited to represent binary production to Chaffee County support our contention. From issues of aesthetics (looks like a greenhouse???) to water concerns to split-estate troubles and eminent domain and the VERY REAL CHANCE OF COSTLY FAILURE – lots of people need to answer lots of questions. Please ask those questions!