The challenge is getting the water deep enough to generate steam. At least in the case of the Fervo trial, this involved technologies originally developed by the oil and gas industry to bore two parallel wells to a depth of 8,000 feet (2,438 meters). The rock was then fractured to allow water to pass between the two wells where it was heated to temperatures exceeding 190 degrees Celsius.
When I arrived in Reykjavík, Iceland, last March, a gravel barrier, almost thirty feet at its highest point, had been constructed to keep lava from the Reykjanes volcano from inundating a major geothermal power station not far from downtown. So far, it had worked, but daily volcano forecasts were being broadcast on a small television at the domestic airport where I was waiting to take a short flight to Akureyri.
For the first time in nearly a decade, federal officials on Tuesday auctioned off leases for new geothermal energy projects in California - and all 13 parcels offered received bids. Dozens of buyers participated in the Bureau of Land Management's online sale of 10-year leases on 23,000 acres in Imperial, Lassen and Modoc counties. Geothermal is a growing source of energy that can produce clean electricity 24 hours a day, unlike wind and solar power.
