Projects

AltaRock’s technology opens up tremendous opportunities for geothermal energy development, and is changing the game for the geothermal industry. Increasing EGS technology deployment will make geothermal power economically competitive with solar and wind. AltaRock Energy’s projects fall into two general categories, Greenfield EGS and Commercial Stimulations.

Greenfield EGS Projects
Greenfield EGS developments take place in areas underlain by hot rock, but with no hydrothermal circulation to bring the heat close to the surface. Geothermal wells are drilled to the depth of hot rock, and well stimulation is used to engineer a man-made heat exchanger at depth using EGS technology and AltaRock’s expertise. Studies by MIT, the U.S. Department of Energy, and Google show that there is enough recoverable energy in the hot rock of the western U.S. to supply a large portion of our total power consumption. Enhanced geothermal systems have been called the future of geothermal Energy- this technology represents the potential to move geothermal energy from a localized source of power to a nationally significant power supply.

Commercial Stimulation Services
AltaRock’s multi-zone stimulation can increase the economic gain at existing power plants by increasing reservoir size, capacity and life of the system. Many conventional geothermal systems suffer from declining production due to geothermal resource depletion. AltaRock uses patented stimulation technology to create new fracture zones adjacent to existing geothermal systems. This effectively expands the size and heat transfer efficiency of the geothermal reservoir. As a result, power generation capacity can be increased by as much as 100 percent at existing facilities with no new drilling investment or risk required. Using this approach, the current domestic geothermal generating capacity of 3.8 gigawatts of electricity could be doubled without drilling a single new well. AltaRock’s team of engineers can also increase the efficiency of existing power plant infrastructure and decrease evaporative loss in the cooling system to further extend the life of existing geothermal power projects.