Courtesy of Doug Johnson
(from NY Times, December 10, 2009)
I have recently completed a project on prediction of earthquakes, and lucky me, there is news of earthquakes in Basel, Switzerland. I thought this might have something to do with earthquake prediction, as this 60 million dollar plant was closed. It was my belief that it was due to a possible upcoming quake, but as I read on, I found that it was a result of the work going on in the plant that has caused millions of dollars worth of damage in the past few years. The man in charge of this geothermal energy project, Markus O. Haring, is going to trial this week facing criminal charges. The recent events in Switzerland are seen as a major setback to those that are for using geothermal energy as an alternative source.
The United States is also involved in geothermal energy, as a company known as AltaRock (located in California) is the country’s first test of this new form of energy. This project is very similar to the Basel project, and involves drilling miles underground past the hot bedrock, and pumping in water to create steam. As for the fault located near Basel, it is highly unlikely that the project could cause a slip in the rock and trigger a major quake. Unfortunately, it is possible that it could cause an earthquake large enough to cause around half a billion dollars worth in damage. With this kind of threat, it may be more of a risk having the plant open than it’s worth. Geothermal energy should still work in less populated areas, and the way I see it, the bedrock of earth can be reached from anywhere, so why not just move the operation? The plant in California is undergoing inspection in the wake of these events, but should continue operation. I would imagine that the houses in this part of the country are built to withstand small earthquakes, as they experience more than their fair share of them every year. As for those in Switzerland, they can breathe easier now that the millions of dollars in damage each year may finally come to a halt.
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Geothermal Project in California is shut Down
this article is very relevant to this article.The company in charge of a California 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. This project was the Obama’s administration first attempt at using geothermal technologies as an alternative energy to fossil fuels. Another project very similar to this in Basel, was shut down because of the damaging earthquakes it produced as a result of the drilling.
This project had been funded by the government, the Energy Department, and private companies such as Google. All together, there was probably over 35 million invested in this project. Because of the money lost nad the potential danger this has, the Obama administration is most likely going to pursue a different route in Geothermal energy. All together The Energy Department has put in over 450 million dollars to geothermal energy this year alone.
AltaRock has also received some $25 million in federal money for a project in Oregon, and some scientists speculated on Friday that after the spate of problems at the Geysers, the company wanted to focus on a new site. Not all geothermal projects are as much as a safety risk as the one in California and or the one done by the Swiss
I think this should be pursued despite the setbacks. I thinks its very important for and other countries to stop being so dependent on oil. This also will benefit our atmosphere in the long run. Global warming are effecting many things and in El Alto in Bolivia may not have a clean water source now. The glaciers it depended on for clean water aare melting because of the climate change.
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