Wildfires threatening Geysers geothermal plants once again
A sign at The Geysers, California, 2011 (source: flickr/ thinkgeoenergy, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
26 Sep 2016
Wildfires in Sonoma County in California once again affecting geothermal operations at the Geysers. Calpine reports the evacuation of staff of one of its 14 plants in the area.
Last year, wildfires damaged a lot of infrastructure of the geothermal operations by Calpine in the Geysers area in Northern California. We reported on this last year, also on the progress of getting the plants back into operation.
Now news from California report again on wildfires in Sonoma County north of San Francisco. The fire is now moving close to the geothermal plants in the area. This forces the operator Calpine to evacuate part of its staff.
Brett Kerr, a spokesman for Calpine, which operates The Geysers geothermal complex, said all employees were safe and accounted for and that the flow of electricity from the facility was not disrupted because the evacuated plant was not operating.
“Our remaining plants at the Geysers continue to operate normally and our team is constantly assessing the situation and will take all steps necessary to ensure the safety of employees and the preservation of our facilities,” Kerr said in an email.
So one can only hope that the fires won’t affect the operations again like last year.
Source: ABC
