AltaRock Energy, Inc., of Seattle, says the data is still being
analyzed, but they are confident they have created three
geothermal reservoirs from a single well where none existed
before. The breakthrough solves two problems holding back the
next level of geothermal development, known as Enhanced
Geothermal Systems, or EGS: creating reservoirs big enough for
commercial production in places they don't occur naturally, and
holding down costs. The project is at Newberry Crater, the
remains of an ancient volcano in central Oregon's Cascade Range.
The site has plenty of heat in rocks deep below the surface to
boil water into steam, but none of the cracks and fissures in
the rock needed to serve as a steam reservoir for a geothermal
power plant. Last fall, engineers pumped cold water into the
ground, cracking open fissures in the deep rock, a process known
as hydroshearing. They then sealed one reservoir from the other
using a new technology. They injected ground-up recycled plastic
bottles, which plugged up the c