U.S. approves mega geothermal energy project in Utah
U.S. approves mega geothermal energy project in Utah
The Interior Department gave the green light to Fervo Energy’s Cape Geothermal Power Project in Beaver County, Utah, the White House confirmed.
The Interior Department gave the green light to Fervo Energy’s Cape Geothermal Power Project in Beaver County, Utah, the White House confirmed to The Washington Post.
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So they're trying to put 2GW of dispatchable (can be dialed up and down on demand), carbon-free electricity by 2028. If you include the last year and a half of the exploratory drilling work they've done on site, that's about 5 and a half years.
They're also saying that each well is about $5 million, have about 30 wells planned for the 400MW project. Not sure how much going up to 2 GW would increase the cost, but that's $0.33 per watt for the 400 MW plan.
In comparison, Vogtle added 2 nuclear reactors for 2 GW of capacity in Georgia, and it cost $35 billion and took 16 years. That's $17.50 per watt.
Solar is somewhere between $1 to $1.20 per watt, but isn't dispatchable.
Ongoing operational costs might be different between all of the different types of generation, but the up front costs are important enough to where they should be a significant part of the discussion.
So if they can pull this off in a few places, this will go a long way towards actually going to zero carbon on the grid.
It's similar to hydroelectric -- if it works and it's cost effective, people will use it and consider it a privilege.. Some green energy works really really well.
I don't know enough of this technology, but the article says they do fracking to "release geothermal energy, not oil and gas". So I imagine it will have the same ecological damage as fracking. Maybe someone more knowledgeable can explain where I'm wrong.
They're fracking, but in granite, rather than in an oil and gas deposit. So you shouldn't see the same kinds of hydrocarbon releases and contamination that go with fracking for oil and gas, or the same huge production of contaminated wastewater that needs to be disposed of.
The drilling is limited to the making the channels for water flow. They are using maneuverable fracking drills and tools to get to the depths they need. They then inject water for use in the heating loop. This water should be used continuously, although it a unclear if it will need to be topped up.
Some of these geothermal startups are creating "natural" piping via drilling to circulate water, while others are using the drilling to place fixed tubing. The latter is hard, more expensive and likely more efficient.