Nevada Division of Minerals controls 430 geothermal wells
Patua geothermal power project site of Gradient Resources, Nevada (source: company)
Alexander Richter
10 Jan 2014
The State of Nevada has 430 geothermal wells that are falling under the supervision of the Division of Minerals and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
This probably falls more in the category “interesting fact” rather than actually a news piece. But coming across the number of geothermal wells in Nevada I thought it would be interesting to report on it.
The article talks about the role of the Division of Minerals in the State of Nevada. As part of its supervision role, it is in charge of inspecting both geothermal and oil wells drilled in the state.
There are today 430 geothermal wells drilled in Nevada, compared to 111 oil wells. The article questions the issue of blow-outs, but mostly in line with oil wells.
There seems to be little supervision with the wells, a fact that had now under investigation and as a result a review of all wells was ordered and will be completed by the end of March this year.
The situation in Nevada is a bit complicated as most oil wells are on public land, “while the ones that the state generally checks are geothermal wells on private property.” There is an agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management that prevents duplicate inspections and BLM checks wells on a three-year-cycle.
“In 2012, 2.4 million MW hours of electricity were provided by Nevada geothermal wells, mostly found in Churchill and Washoe counties, enough to power 219,000 homes.”
Source: Review Journal
