From Everett, Washington’s Hometown newspaper The Herald.

The test wells, located near Skykomish and Sultan, will be drilled to measure the rise in temperature from the surface to the bottom of each well.

The test-well sites likely would not be candidates for a geothermal plant in the future. They were selected because they’re near roads and are easy to reach…Two of the sites are on private property, two on U.S. Forest Service land and one on land owned by the state…The PUD will spend $250,000 to dig the wells.”

The PUD will spend $250,000 to dig the wells

Geothermal could provide up to 6% of SNOPUD’s electrical load according to the utilities estimates.

GreenFire Energy (GreenFire) today announced that it has entered into a technology sublicense agreement with AltaRock Energy (AltaRock) for the core patent for using CO₂ as the working fluid in a geothermal energy plant. The technology, which GreenFire refers to as “CO₂G™,” will produce renewable geothermal energy while also sequestering large volumes of CO₂. GreenFire intends to be the first company in the world to commercialize this technology. The sublicense gives GreenFire exclusive rights to the technology across a broad region centered on the St. Johns Dome, located in Apache County, AZ and Catron County, NM. It also gives GreenFire national non-exclusive access to the technology for the purposes of developing other sites, some of which have already been identified.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/greenfire-energy-announces-a-technology,1117913.shtml

The author of this blog acknowledges the conflict of interest to carbon capture he holds.

Little has happened of note following the Alta-Rock access to rights beneath 263,000 acres of timber property in Western Washington.  Nor has Seattle City Light moved to take on any resource development.

However, SnoPud continues to be a leader and moves forward with their geothermal development in the Cascades.  They received $15 Million in federal funding for their innovative energy work in not only geothermal, but also tidal and smart meters.

The June 3rd Geothermal Workshop in Seattle was successful with lots of Canadian attention coming down from Vancouver.

State Senator Kline is committed to re-introducing his geothermal bill in the 2010 Legislature in Olympia.

However, the state remains in need of a deep borehole in the Cascades for some accurate assessments on the resource potential.

A vast pool of molten rock in the continental crust that underlies southwestern Washington state could supply magma to three active volcanoes in the Cascade Mountains Mount St. Helens, Mount Rainier and Mount Adams according to a new study that’s causing a stir among scientists

The link to the journal article and from the Hartford Courant’s political coverage (of all places). 

The study, published Sunday in the magazine Nature Geoscience, concluded that the magma pool among the three mountains could be the "most widespread magma-bearing area of continental crust discovered so far."
Other scientists dismiss the existence of an underground vat of magma covering potentially hundreds of square miles as "farfetched" and "highly unlikely." Rather than magma heated to 1,300 to 1,400 degrees, some think it could be water.
They also discount speculation that a so-called "super volcano" such as the one under the Yellowstone National Park area might be beneath the region. They say there’s no credible evidence to suggest a need to overhaul the volcanic hazard assessments for the three mountains.
Even so, the study is another piece of the puzzle as scientists try to understand the deep plumbing of volcanoes and, perhaps eventually, learn how to predict their eruptions better.
In the late 1980s, scientists discovered a massive underground electromagnetic anomaly known as the Southern Washington Cascades Conductor. But the two-year study published Sunday is the first to suggest that it may be the source of magma for Mounts St. Helens, Rainier and Adams.
"We believe our results speak for themselves and are reluctant to extrapolate from the conclusions reached in the paper," Graham Hill, the lead author of the study, said in an e-mail from New Zealand. The study was sponsored by GNS Science, the New Zealand equivalent of the U.S. Geological Survey, and Monash University in Australia.
The three volcanoes are along the edges of the Southern Washington Cascades Conductor, in a rough triangle with Mount St. Helens to the south, Rainier to the north and Adams to the east. They’re 50 or so miles apart.
Scientists think that each volcano has its own small magma chamber three miles or more directly beneath it. A large pool of magma 12 to 15 miles under the region’s surface supplies each of the shallower chambers, the new study theorizes.
"The take-home point is there is evidence of a primary magma pool that feeds the chambers underneath the volcanoes," said Matt Burgess, who worked on the study before becoming a hydrologist with the U.S. Geological Survey in San Diego. "It’s one source all these volcanoes feed off."
Using sensitive instruments at 85 sites among the mountains including Mount St. Helens during its just-ended eruptive phase scientists studied the electric and magnetic fields of the Southern Washington Cascades Conductor, Burgess said.
"It’s up for debate, but it is reasonable to assume it is a large magma chamber," he said. "There is no other explanation for this."
Among the scientists who study volcanoes, the study has, in fact, touched off a major debate.
"Their interpretation is open to disagreement," said Seth Moran, a volcano seismologist with the USGS Cascades Volcano Observatory in Vancouver, Wash. "Other geophysical studies don’t support this theory."
Moran said the most telling evidence that the theory was wrong was the lack of any surface evidence, such as geothermal vents or hot springs, among the mountains that would indicate the presence of a super-heated underground magma pool.
"If there was such a large body of magma, you would find surface evidence," Moran said, adding that Yellowstone, with its geysers and hot springs, is a perfect example of the type of visible evidence that’s lacking in southwest Washington state.
Steve Malone, a professor emeritus at the University of Washington’s earth and space science department who’s studied the Cascade volcanoes for years, agrees.
"The geothermal evidence for what Graham suggests is nonexistent," Malone said. There is also no seismic evidence for such a magma pool, he said.
Twenty years ago, a study using "limited heat data" described a vast area of deep magma beneath the volcanoes in the Oregon Cascades, Malone said.
"Such hypotheses sometimes just fade away," he said. "It absolutely is not a reason at this point to re-evaluate hazard mitigation efforts."

Yet some of Malone’s colleagues agree with the study and Hill’s conclusions.
Olivier Bachmann, a geochemist at the University of Washington, said the data in the study were "pretty solid." He said there was other evidence, including geochemical evidence, to suggest that the Southern Washington Cascades Conductor might be a magma pool.
An underground anomaly like the Southern Washington Cascades Conductor has been discovered in the Andes Mountains in Chile. Studies there indicate that it’s a pool of magma, he said. Scientists on New Zealand’s North Island are doing similar research.
The lack of surface evidence is no reason to discount the possibility of a southwest Washington magma pool, Bachmann said, adding that the geysers and hot springs in Yellowstone, Iceland and New Zealand are over much shallower magma pools than the Southern Washington Cascades Conductor.
Bachmann called the Southern Washington Cascades Conductor a "mush zone," about 20 to 50 percent magma and the rest crystalline rock. The magma extruded at Mount St. Helens was filled with crystals, he said.
"The magma at Mount St. Helens is sticky, viscous, explosive and didn’t come directly from the (Earth’s) mantle," he said.
All the scientists, including Hill and Burgess, said there was nothing to suggest that a dangerous super volcano was underneath southwest Washington.
The Yellowstone super volcano is one of the largest on Earth, with a caldera, or depression, in the surface that covers 1,500 square miles. During its last eruption, 640,000 years ago, it released 8,000 times more lava and ash than the 1980 eruptions of Mount St. Helens did.
"There is no evidence to suggest there is a super volcano down below southwest Washington," Bachmann said.
As for the disagreement over whether the Southern Washington Cascades Conductor is a large magma pool or something else, Bachmann said that more studies needed to be done, such as surface heat flow studies. Drilling isn’t a possibility, he said.
"It would cost a lot and be too dangerous," he said.

From ANI news feed

When exposed to heat brought to the surface from water circulating in moderately hot, underground rock, the thermal-cycling of the biphasic fluid will power a turbine to generate electricity. To aid in efficiency, scientists have added nanostructured metal-organic heat carriers, or MOHCs, which boost the power generation capacity to near that of a conventional steam cycle.

Seattle will have the opportunity to highlight its clean energy credentials next month when it hosts a major event for the geothermal energy industry.
The Geothermal Energy Association (GEA) will hold a Technology, Finance and Development Workshop in the city on June 3…. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels and a variety of other local officials are expected to be on hand at the event.

The link to the article is here.

For more information on the GEA Workshop, try this link

We would like to apologize for the loss of images to this blog.  Unfortunately a web programmer attempting to work on a different website (www.geothermalinnovation.org) inadvertently accessed North of the Hot Zone and erased the images and some of the links.

We are trying to correct this problem, but as some of the entries were original research it will take some time.  We are actively soliciting an intern who will work on this problem as part of a larger geothermal internship.

if there are any images or data referred to on this blog that you would like to have resolved sooner, please contact Lawrence Molloy directly at Lawrence@northofthehotzone.com

8:00 am Opening Keynote presentations, Karl Gawell, GEA, Moderator
Greg Nickels, Mayor of Seattle, WA, confirmed
Senator Adam Kline, State of Washington, confirmed
Representatives of Federal and State officials, invited
8:25 am Geothermal 101: Understanding geothermal resources and technology
Susan Petty, AltaRock Energy, confirmed
8:45 am Washington State Geothermal Status and Roadmap
Dave Norman, Washington State Geologist, confirmed
Dave Sjoding, Washington State University, confirmed
9:15 am BREAK
9:30 am Ormat, Gold Level Sponsor, Morning Keynote
9:45 am New Geothermal Projects Under Development: Leading Project Developers Discuss the Status of
Their New Geothermal Projects and Keys to Successful Project Development
Ken MacLeod, Western GeoPower, confirmed
Michael Hayter, Raser Technologies, confirmed
Dan Schochet, Ram Power, confirmed
Hank Sennott, Enel NA, tentative
Phil Messer, PBS&J, tentative
Saf Dhilon, U.S Geothermal, tentative
10:45 am New Geothermal Technology Panel: New and future developments in geothermal technology are
described and discussed
Ed Wall, DOE, Panel Chair:
13
Paul Thomsen, Ormat, confirmed
Halley Dickey, TAS, confirmed
Lou Capuano, ThermaSource, confirmed
Charles Baron, Google, confirmed
Kevin Wallace, Power Engineers, confirmed
David Paul, UTC power, tentative
11:45 LUNCH 
12:30 pm Community/Environmental/Tribal: Invite environmental leader to speak on role of geothermal
and environmental issues; invite community official where geothermal is used or being developed to
discuss local issues/benefits
Panel Chair: Karl Gawell, GEA
Ross Macfarlane, Climate Solutions, confirmed
Laurie McClenahan Hietter, RMT, confirmed
Roger Taylor, State, Local & Tribal Deployment, National Renewable Energy Laboratory,
confirmed
Michael O?Connell, Stoel Rives, LLP, confirmed
Additional environmental, community or tribal views (lRachel Shimshak, Renewable NW
Projects, Nancy Hirsch, NW Energy Coalition, Tony Usibelli, WA State Energy Office, Dan
Ritzman, Sierra Club, Becky Kelly, Washington Environmental Council, Diana Enright, Oregon
Department of Energy, Shoshone Tribe, invited)
1:20 pm Transmission: Status and Outlook for Federal and State Actions to Ensure Adequate Transmission
for New Renewable Power Projects
Jonathan Weisgall, MidAmerican Energy Holdings Company, confirmed
1:40 pm Federal Stimulus and Other Support
Ed Wall, Geothermal Technologies Program Director, U.S Department of Energy,
confirmed
2:00 pm UTC Power, Gold Level Sponsor, Afternoon Keynote
2:15 pm BREAK
2:30 pm Financing Geothermal Projects: Status of Federal and State Incentives, Approaches to
Project Financing, and More…
Mark Taylor, New Energy Finance, confirmed
Tom King, U.S Renewables Group, confirmed
CJ Arrigo, Glacier Capital Partners, confirmed
John McIlveen, Jacobs and Company Securities, Inc., confirmed
3:30 pm Overcoming the legal/regulatory hurdles to new geothermal development
Jerry Fish, Stoel Rives, confirmed
John Pierce, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich Rosati, confirmed
Kermit Witherbee, BLM Geothermal Program Manager, confirmed
Bob Fujimoto, U.S Forest Service, to be invited
4:30pm Geothermal Energy from a Utility/Power Company Perspective
Chad Teply or Mark Tallman, PacifiCorp, confirmed
Craig Collar, Snohomish PUD, confirmed
Steve Ponder, NV Energy, confirmed
Additional Representative (Ben Farrow, Puget Sound Energy, Murray Grande, NCPA, and John
Pease, Bonneville Power Administration, invited)

"For states like Idaho, Washington and Oregon, which are dominated by relatively cheap hydro power, the competition is low-cost power,” said Doug Glaspey, COO of Boise-based U.S. Geothermal. “In California, energy costs are around $100 per megawatt. In Idaho, people don’t want to pay any more than $60 or $70 per megawatt.”

The link to the article is here

To most people the word “geothermal” means hot springs and geysers — like parts of Iceland or Yellowstone National Park where water is heated by the presence of magma near the surface of the earth. But the earth’s heat lies below everywhere, and it offers a virtually untapped energy reserve of enormous potential with a very short list of drawbacks.

In 2006, a panel led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology surveyed the prospects for electricity production from enhanced geothermal systems. Its conclusions were conservative but very optimistic. The panel suggested that with modest federal support, geothermal power could play a critical role in America’s energy future, adding substantially to the nation’s store of renewable energy and more than making up for coal-burning power plants that would have to be retired.

Following up on the M.I.T. study and a separate survey of its own, the Bureau of Land Management issued a decision last month that would open up as many as 190 million acres to leases for geothermal exploration and development. These lands are mostly in the West, where hot rock lies closer to the surface than it generally does in the East.

There is a lot of research yet to be done about geothermal sources, new techniques for deep drilling and energy generation at the surface. But the basics are clear enough. Water is injected deep into the earth where it absorbs heat from the surrounding rock. As the fluid returns to the surface, that heat is used to generate electricity. The fluid is then re-injected. The system forms a closed loop. It creates almost no emissions and is entirely renewable. It also occupies a smaller surface area than either solar or wind power.

Still, large-scale commercial production is at least a decade away and will require improvements on currently available technology. Geothermal development also will mean still more competition for scarce water, more holes in the ground and more roads to service those holes.

The M.I.T. report’s statement that the success of geothermal production “would parallel the development of the U.S. coal-bed methane industry” is no doubt meant to be reassuring. Yet in parts of the West, coal-bed methane has been an environmental disaster, both for fragile landscapes and the wildlife that depend on them.

Geothermal development must not be allowed to foster another drilling free-for-all of the kind we’ve seen during the past decade. Done right, it could help free the country of the grievous environmental burden of coal-burning power plants. Done wrong, it could create grievous environmental problems of its own. Mindful of the dangers, the next administration should commit to developing this extraordinary resource