A green energy disaster

July 8, 2009 by Keith Lockitch

One of the “clean energy” sources promoted by environmentalists is geothermal–energy derived from the natural heat deep below the earth’s surface. Unlike solar or wind power, which are intermittent and therefore unreliable sources of energy, geothermal heat is always present. It doesn’t require vast installations of unsightly, noisy wind turbines or immense arrays of mirrors or solar cells, and it produces no emissions whatsoever (except perhaps some water vapor from cooling units).

But before you cue the chorus of green hallelujahs in praise of geothermal, you might want to take a look at a recent New York Times article that points out one little problem with the primary method of extracting geothermal energy: it causes earthquakes.

In December 2006, a European geothermal company drilling three miles deep set off an earthquake that damaged buildings in Basel, Switzerland. As the article explains, the project leader Markus O. Häring, a former oilman,

knew that by its very nature, the technique created earthquakes because it requires injecting water at great pressure down drilled holes to fracture the deep bedrock. The opening of each fracture is, literally, a tiny earthquake in which subterranean stresses rip apart a weak vein, crack or fault in the rock. The high-pressure water can be thought of loosely as a lubricant that makes it easier for those forces to slide the earth along the weak points, creating a web or network of fractures.

Mr. Häring planned to use that network as the ultimate teapot, circulating water through the fractures and hoping it emerged as steam. But what surprised him that afternoon was the intensity of the quakes because advocates of the method believe they can pull off a delicate balancing act, tearing the rock without creating larger earthquakes.

Alarmed, Mr. Häring and other company officials decided to release all pressure in the well to try to halt the fracturing. But as they stood a few miles from the drill site, giving the orders by speakerphone to workers atop the hole, a much bigger jolt shook the room.

“I think that was us,” said one stunned official.

The project in Basel was immediately shut down. But as the Times reports, Al Gore’s venture capital firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, was undeterred by such problems and helped to found AltaRock Energy, which is developing a geothermal project using methods similar to those used in Basel in one of the most seismically active regions of the country, two hours north of San Francisco. (!)

Be sure to read the whole Times article, so as not to miss the part about the “report on seismic impact that AltaRock was required to file,” in which “the company failed to mention that the Basel program was shut down because of the earthquake it caused”–or the mention of “a 2007 geothermal report financed by the Energy Department” that touted geothermal’s vast potential while failing to mention the Basel quake and making “spare and reassuring references to earthquake risks”–or the statement from the official who granted AltaRock its federal permits who, “when asked if he knew that the Basel project had shut down because of earthquakes or that it had induced more than 3,500 quakes,” said “‘I wish that had been disclosed.’”

Talk about an inconvenient truth.