Ormat will drill test wells at Mount Spurr, Alaska this summer
Mount Spurr, Alaska (source: USGS, wikimedia commons)
Alexander Richter
25 May 2011
Ormat Technologies has mobilized a field crew for a second year of summer exploration at the Mount Spurr geothermal project in Alaska, and expects two 4,000 foot test wells to be drilled this summer.
News from Alaska report, that “Ormat Technologies Inc. of Nevada has mobilized a field crew for a second year of summer exploration at the company’s Mount Spurr geothermal project, 75 miles southeast of Anchorage. Mount Spurr is an active volcano.
Ormat will use the same core drilling rig CIRI used for drilling at Beluga last winter, which will be airlifted to Mount Spurr soon, according to the company’s manager for the project, Rahm Orenstein.
Two 4,000-foot test wells will be drilled this summer at the geothermal site, following up on two 1,000-foot test wells drilled last year. The 2011 wells will be at different locations on the geothermal reservoir than the 2010 wells, Orenstein said.
Data from the four wells will be used to model the extent of the resource, which will provide information for planning three commercial-scale wells the company hopes to drill in 2012. The Legislature approved $20 million in state funds to support Ormat’s work when lawmakers adjourned May 14. State funds, combined with Ormat’s investment, will be used to drill the three deep wells in 2012. Next year’s drilling is contingent on favorable results from the 2011 drilling, however.
Ormat Vice President Paul Thomsen told legislators in Juneau in a May 6 briefing that results from the 2010 drilling were encouraging, and if the 2011 and 2012 wells are successful, the project could be constructed and producing 50 megawatts of power for Southcentral Alaska electric utilities by 2015, and 100 megawatts by 2019.
Orenstein said Ormat would have spent about $4.5 million on Mount Spurr exploration from 2010 and 2011 with $2 million of the program funded by grants from the state’s Renewable Resource Fund and $2.5 million funded by Ormat itself. The company also paid the state $3.5 million in 2008 to lease 38,000 acres of geothermal leases at Mount Spurr.
A full-scale development at Mount Spurr would require an investment of $220 million to $270 million, which Ormat would finance itself, Thomsen told legislators.
However, state funding would be requested for a 40-mile transmission line and road would need to be constructed to connect the site to a natural gas-fired power plant and transmission infrastructure owned by Chugach Electric Association, which could also be one of Ormat’s customers.
Ormat has estimated that $65 million would be needed to build the transmission line.”
Source: Peninsula Clarion
