You're watching...
Altarock Energy founder Susan Petty on the new drilling technology called hydroshearing.
Also in this playlist...
Auto-advance: ON
Auto-advance
This transcript is automatically generated
Drilling processes is creating a -- now -- and it might offer an alternative to fracking it's called Hydro Schering.
And you look an animation right now I've bid to catch is it's being tested underneath the new -- -- Keno.
In Oregon and it's about twenty miles from bandit and get says it's about ten times the area of -- -- Helen's.
So the big question is -- drilling cause it to abrupt.
Joining me discuss the risk and the potential.
Heavy founder -- press.
-- rock energy.
Let's start first with how the technology works my understanding is that basically.
Your report -- pouring cold water over very hot -- and it would create steam which you can then turn into electricity is that about right.
That's about right but let's get up to about the 50000 foot level and start with.
Why -- doing this -- everywhere you go.
The deeper you go the hotter it gets.
And there's some places like you very -- get hotter faster than others.
And there are some places where natural faults and fractures bring back a hot water up right close to the surfaced.
So we can -- into -- abuses and make.
Power plan or he greenhouses or whatever we want to do.
But that is where you find it showed what we're trying to do with art technology.
Is good places where there's hop rock but no natural circulating geothermal system and what we're trying to do is -- -- actually had to make an an artificial circulating geothermal system.
So -- Worry about of course is that -- -- around with the volcano series -- eight you know is there any chance that you're going to trigger a volcanic eruption.
You know I've got to tell you there are dozens of geothermal power plants on or in volcanoes.
And McCain have not caused any volcanic eruptions their geothermal power plants on volcanoes.
In Indonesia and the Philippines.
And Central America and Italy.
And no volcanic eruptions have occurred because of this geothermal activity.
I myself have done stipulations.
Where we've come cold water into the well -- fractures.
In Indonesia with no bad consequences in fact very very good consequences.
And there have been three previous projects -- in volcanoes.
That used the predecessor to process we're using that you bury one MPG -- worry and won it -- got she in Japan.
I'm Ben we're there's also the original -- -- project that fat hill was on the edge of the -- called -- -- -- a.
Let me much bigger but let me just quote somebody you know -- -- -- who has a specialist in the area Benjamin pockets the geologists in the US Geological Survey.
Who said in an interview with -- public broadcasting that it's a pretty high threat volcano that it's very likely it's gonna wrapped in the future.
Does that make you nervous at all.
Really you -- erupted last about thirteen hundred years ago.
But right now it's very quiet and there's a lot of monitoring going on we've gotten pretty good at detecting when -- is moving around in volcanoes.
And Newberry is very very quiet they're OK nothing going on that anyone's detected.
There there's no doubt that everything about this is very cruel it's it's not cheap on he'd gotten more than 21 million dollars.
-- I.
Or about half of your finding that has come from the Department of Energy in the long run.
How does this type of energy stack up against you know more conventional ways of creating electricity like natural gas or coal or whatever.
OK so when conventional GM -- cheaper than new coal.
And -- of course much cleaner and what we're doing we hope to bring down to the kinds of costs that conventional geothermal have.
So this kind of process that were working on this demonstration project is aimed at exactly that bring that cost down.
Now geothermal energy is a very high upfront capital cost.
But it has very very Boe operating course of course the feels -- so here.
Once you get it going it operates for very very low cost very interesting Susan patty thank you so much for coming on.
Thank you.
