A Proposal to Develop Ultra High- enthalpy Geothermal Systems in the USA

摘要

In October 2013, thirty scientists, engineers, and policy makers gathered at the University of California conference center at Lake Arrowhead in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California at a workshop to discuss developing a program to produce electrical energy from very high-enthalpy geothermal fields in the USA. Two attendees from New Zealand, two from Mexico, and one from each of Iceland, Italy, Philippines, and Russia participated in the workshop, which was convened by Wilfred Elders of the University of California, Riverside. The workshop had two objectives, firstly to discuss scientific and engineering studies of active higher-enthalpy hydrothermal systems, and secondly to stimulate collaboration between academic scientists, government agencies, and industry (Elders, 2013). Such collaboration is highly desirable because research on active hydrothermal systems requires access to boreholes whose costs far exceed budgets normally available to academic scientists. It is industry that drills the wells that access and produce geothermal resources.