Hi Howard,
Fascinating. Do you have any Internet based mapping of the injection wells? One of the horrendous and unexpected costs of the Geysers projects was the cost of brake shoes. No kidding. Bringing the heavy equipment off the hill was a real burn, so to speak. This isn't easy geological terrain as you well know (no pun intended, at first) and the distances to elevation gain to the site of the extraction wells is quite arduous. Is the plan to do the Virginia City scheme in reverse? Horizonal boring to the hot spot?
I really have to wonder about the economics of this scheme. It seems like such total pie-in-the-sky nonsense to me. Why the heck don't y'all just take a few acre feet out of Pillbury, ferchissakes? All that reclaimed water could just as easily be dumped on golf courses and save everybody a lot of bother, doncha think? After all, your pumping costs gotta be pretty high, right?
Why does Santa Rosa have a disposal problem? Good grief, SoCal is doing tertiary treatment and getting damn close to sending the effluent back out into potable water supplies. It's not that far off, and it is not at all impractical. Just tweaks the squeamish the wrong way.
and Calpine gets more steam at the Geysers for an indefinite period. Frankly, I think this is probably wishful thinking on the part of someone's investment committee. The problem at Geysers is not a lack of percolation, it's a lack of heat. That's what's being depleted, not the water ferchissakes.
I'm being intentionally provocative to try to get people to think. Can you prove I don't know what the heck I'm talking about? Just a friendly challenge.
Best, Ray |
