Geothermal Energy Patrick (Pat) Laney Idaho National Laboratory Utah Geothermal Power Generation Workshop August 17, 2005

Oceanic crust: depth of 0-10 km The oceanic ridge system, a 40,000 km network of volcanoes, generates new oceanic crust at the rate of 17 km 3 per year Continental crust: depth of 0-75 km The outer part of the Earth composed essentially of crystalline rocks. These are low-density buoyant minerals dominated mostly by quartz and feldspars. We refer to this rigid outer shell as the lithosphere (the rocky or strong layer). The Big Picture – Geothermal 101 The “Ring of Fire”

Where Are We Likely To Encounter High Subsurface Temperatures? 3km 4km 5km 6km 10km Estimated temperatures at various depths from 9, ,800 ft. (3 - 10km)

The Geothermal Water Cycle

How Do You Find Geothermal Resources ? Early resources were found primarily by: Visual observations of existing springs & thermal features Elevated temperatures in shallow domestic and industrial wells Yellowstone National Park Firehole River Yellowstone National Park Artesian Geothermal Well

Finding Geothermal Resources Field reconnaissance and geologic mapping were responsible for early discoveries Many early exploration techniques from petroleum exploration were incorporated

Finding Geothermal Resources Modeling Seismic Surveys InSAR Satellite Imagery Gravity Surveys Seismic Surveys Geochemical Surveys Modeling Current exploration practices include a wide array of physical and remote sensing measurements including: Multispectral imaging Soil mapping Geothermometry Vegetation mapping InSAR

Finding Geothermal Resources You Have To Drill !

Geothermal Electrical Power Dry Steam Flash Steam Binary Environmentally Friendly

“As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. This is to say, we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know.” Donald Rumsfeld