California Geothermal Project Shut Down

[bhikkhu]

The company in charge of a project to extract vast amounts of renewable energy from deep, hot bedrock has removed its drill rig and informed federal officials that the government project will be abandoned...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/12/science/earth/12quake.html?_r=1

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Not to just dump on the possibility of geo-energy, but this notes the recent shut-down of a similar Swiss project, as well as following on the heels of the shut-down of the other much-hyped project at OIT in Oregon. It seems like it would be a no-brainer, but the Swiss project failed because of earthquake concerns, at OIT they just didn't find the hot zone they were hoping for, and in San Francisco it seems to have been expensive rig failures, or a harder job of work to drill than they budgeted for.

[NV Whino]

1. Maybe I can keep my pictures straight now.

The problem with the geysers is they try to make them produce more energy than they are capable of producing. The geysers could produce enough energy for the immediate area, but the people who control the operation would not make enough money (in their estimation) to bother working a small operation.