News about Solar, Wind and alternative green power technologies

Precautionary Measures are set by United State Energy Department for drilling into the Core of the Earth and Geothermal Energy stand to lose. Earthquake risks associated to drilling into the earth for the harnessing of geothermal energy are triggering these new regulations.

The law according to Federal documents has been formed based on unfolded opposition that Seattle-based AltaRock Energy was met with. It has been proclaimed that digging more than two miles into the earth surface at Geysers, which is some hundred miles north to San Francisco caused earthquake peril.

There was severe quandary with the drilling, as the company was accused by residents and scientists to have underestimated the potential risk of earthquakes.

The project at Geysers has been officially abandoned. The federal had provided as much as $6 million to fund the drilling that ended unsuccessfully. However, AltaRock has refused to make any public announcement of the termination of the project.

Earlier, in September 2009, a document mentioned that earthquakes provoked by AltaRock, had an insignificant consequence on the human environment. The company is also doing a similar drilling project at Newberry Volcanic Monument close to Bend, Ore.

Obama administration’s stimulus package, for the Oregon project provided $338 million to finance 123 geothermal projects across 38 states, according to Cathy Zoi, an assistant energy secretary.

Two seismic specialists considered that the risk involved in geothermal energy is undefined. However, seismologist and deputy director of the Earth Science Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California, Ernie Majer considered that the document provided by the company depicted the precautions taken in association to earthquakes that might be initiated by humans.

In the new precautionary measures, it will be obligatory to monitor with ground-motion sensors and to supply information of the potential earthquake inducement that drilling might propel. Moreover, firms will now on be required to give prognosis of earthquakes activities and submit the internal reports to experts outside to the organizations.

The finding that have been established on the AltaRock Project at Geysers, have little effect according to Ms. Zoi as the project is already cancelled. However, it provides substantial guide for future projects. It will give Energy department a cautionary attitude towards the collation of geothermal energy.

AltaRock’s chief executive, Donald O’Shei communicated in an email that he was contented that the project would have only minor impact on the residents in the regions.

Source: New York Times