Geothermal landmark to be made into national park in New Mexico
Valles Grande, Valles Caldera, New Mexico (source: flickr/ Larry Lamsa, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
3 Jan 2017
A geothermal land mark in the state of New Mexico in the U.S. is about to become a national park, that will protect it from any geothermal development in the park, but also effect possible development nearby.
Covered widely today across various media outlets in the U.S., the Valles Caldera National Preserve, a beautiful caldera is to become the 17th U.S. national park, if approved.
A comment period will end at the end of this month. If going by plan, the Caldera will join Yellowstone, Crater Lake and Hawaii volcanoes on the list of federally protected geothermal features.
The protection would prevent any development of geothermal energy projects or related actvities that could have a negative impact on the caldera and neighboring land, as reported by the Associated Press.
The caldera is only partly surveyd but around 30 geothermal fumaroles have been identified.
There have been earlier efforts on development by the U.S. Department of Energy, Union Oil Co. and the Public Service Company of New Mexico, but this was abandoned in the 1980s.
With the designation now under review, geothermal development outside the boundaries of the preserve could also be blocked if they could impact the geothermal reserves of the park.
With an increasing interest in geothermal development in the state, this is a blow to development but also a chance to highlight geothermal energy as an option for the state.
New Mexico could cover up to 11% of its energy demand with geothermal power. Currently there is one geothermal power plant, the Lightning Dock plant by Cyrq Energy in the state operating at a capacity of 4 MW with an expansion to 10 MW under way.
Source: ABC News
