The heat of the Earth’s crust has been tapped for more than one century for the generation of electricity. FILE

• Providing supply 91 million litres

The aim is to test the effectiveness of a new technology to promote an ecological energy sector

Oregon, United States (05/FEB/2012)-two companies specializing in geothermal power generation providing injecting 91 million litres (24 million gallons) of water from a hill inside a volcano slept in the center of Oregon.

The aim is to test the effectiveness of a new technology to promote an ecological energy sector to date has been more one hope than a reality.

According to experts, this system water back to the surface quickly and temperatures sufficient to generate clean and cheap electricity that does not depend on sunny skies or strong winds.

Nor cause tremors on Earth nor it was will test the nerves of the inhabitants of the nearby sites, they claim.

Renewable energy has not achieved great prominence it deserves due to the low cost of natural gas, low demand for electricity, and the decline in interest among politicians towards global warming.

Projects to harness the Earth’s heat to generate geothermal energy also have encountered technical problems prompted concerns that would cause earthquakes.

Still, the American Government, Google, and other investors are quite interested in geothermal generation and channelled resources to the project in Oregon, which will have a cost of $ 43 million.

These parts will help companies AltaRock Energy, Inc., of Seattle, and Davenport Newberry Holdings LLC, of Stamford, Connecticut, to show if the next level of technology for geothermal generation works on the slopes of the Newberry volcano, situated some 30 kiómetros (20 miles) South of Bend, Oregon.

“We know that there is heat,” said Susan Petty, President of AltaRock. “The big question is if we can achieve a great movement of (hot) water in the system to ensure that electricity generation is economic,” he added.

The heat of the Earth’s crust has been tapped for more than one century for the generation of electricity.

Engineers stored hot water or steam that rises near the surface to spin a turbine that generates electricity. Most land areas with these features are exploited.

The new frontier is the places which have hot rocks, but no cracks in rocks or water to generate steam.

In order to take advantage of this heat, and geothermal energy from a tiny niche to become a major source of ecological electricity, engineers designed a new technology called enhanced geothermal systems.

“To carry the geothermal energy levels higher than the current you need new technology, and there is where come the enhanced geothermal systems,” said Steve Hickman, a Research Geophysicist with the geological survey of United States in Menlo Park, California.

Carried out deep holes in the rock and is pumped water in them, which causes small fractures in the rock, a process that is known as hydraulic cutting.

You get steam with the injection of cold water in the wells which returns to a deposit.

Hydraulic cutting is similar to the process known as hydraulic fracturing, which is used for the release of natural gas in shale formations.

However, this system, known as fracking, uses fluids that have dissolved chemicals and creates large fractures.

Several recent earthquakes in Arkansas and Ohio were possibly due to the injection of wastewater for fracking to great depth in order to eliminate them.

However, still fears that the breaking of the rock at great depth by means of hydraulic cutting can also lead to earthquakes that cause damage to the surface.

The enhanced geothermal systems have other problems. It is difficult to create a water reservoir large enough that has capacity to drive an electric plant with commercial purposes.

Progress has been slow. Two small plants are in operation in France and Germany. A third, in the Centre of Basel, Switzerland, was shut down due to complaints by the earthquakes. A project in Australia had problems in the work of drilling.

At the end of January will be a new international protocol calling for electricity-generating companies carry out their projects to enhanced geothermal systems outside urban areas, according to the so called “health test”, said Ernie Majer, Geophysicist of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The Protocol also provides that enterprises inform in advance the inhabitants so that they know exactly what is happening.

AltaRock hoped to demonstrate a new technology to create larger reservoirs based on plastic polymers that are used in the manufacture of biodegradable cups.

This technology worked on geothermal deposits remain in operation. Newberry will show whether it is effective in a brand new site which applies the technique of the enhanced geothermal systems, in a different kind of geology, saying volcanic rock, said Colin Williams, the geological survey Geophysicist.

The United States Department of energy has granted the project a stimulus of $ 21.5 million. The amount was matched by local investors, among these Google that I contribute $ 6.3 million.