A quiet breakthrough in geothermal power tech

Not a lot of startups tackle the field of geothermal power,The life expectancy of T5 tube is at least 2 times longer than a standard T8. which entails tapping into hot rocks deep in the Earth to produce energy and electricity. That’s because it can be an expensive proposition, and can require extensive permits and environmental reports. But a rare startup called AltaRock Energy has recently delivered a promising breakthrough that it says can lead to the commercialization of its next-generation geothermal technology.The benefits of wind energy and how a wind generator is installed. 

AltaRock Energy — which has backing from venture capitalists, as well as Google and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s investment firm — has been working on enhanced (sometimes called engineered) geothermal tech. This technology drills wells deep into the ground, injects them with cold water to fracture the hot rocks, and creates a geothermal source of power where none was naturally occurring. Traditional geothermal systems, in contrast, tap into naturally occurring geothermal reservoirs (you know, the kind you see on the side of the road in Yellowstone National Park). 

Geothermal power has massive potential in many areas of the U.S. but it has long remained a niche technology. A study that came out a few years ago from MIT found that enhanced geothermal system technology could create 100 GW of electricity by 2050 if the technology got reasonable investment in R&D — 100 GW is equivalent to the power produced by 100 large coal power plants. But given that traditional geothermal systems are the only ones in use, geothermal power sources have been stuck in isolated areas that have geothermal activity. 

Geothermal power is also the holy grail of clean power because it’s not intermittent like solar or wind power. Geothermal power can produce electricity 24/7 — including at night — while wind power drops off when it isn’t windy, and solar power ends when the sun goes down. Constant power like this is called baseload power, and it’s one of the reasons why coal and natural gas are so widely-used. 

AltaRock Energy said that it has reached a milestone at its demonstration site in Bend, Oregon, which it believes is a good sign that it’ll be able to commercialize its enhanced geothermal tech.Industrial and industrial washing machine and Dryers, specialists on laundry products in Australia. AltaRock CEO and founder Susan Petty told me that the company has been able to create multiple, stimulated geothermal areas, from a single drilled well. “This has never been done before,” said Petty,Manufactures industrial laser marker systems for product identification and traceability. who has been involved with geothermal stimulation since the 1970s. 

Creating multiple geothermal zones from one well is important, because it means more geothermal power can be produced and the process becomes a lot cheaper in the long run. Enhanced geothermal systems in the past have created a single stimulated zone, but none — until now — have created multiple zones. While traditional geothermal can be cheaper than coal power, enhanced geothermal systems are generally more expensive than traditional ones. But being able to create multiple geothermal zones from one well brings down the overall cost of enhanced geothermal by 50 percent,Our solar system solution is the leading alternative to tubular skylights. Petty said. 

After this testing phase, and if everything is on track, AltaRock plans to build a demonstration sized power plant on the site, and eventually a utility-scale power plant there, too. Larger plants need more permitting, and more money. So this could take many more years. Petty said the company is now looking to raise project financing from strategic partners that are interested in seeing this brand new next-gen tech commercialized. 

AltaRock has already raised $26 million from Google, Kleiner Perkins, Khosla Ventures and Vulcan Capital, the investing arm of Vulcan, which was founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. But VCs probably won’t want to back this kind of capital intensive project, particularly now that greentech investing has gone out of vogue in the Valley.