Sierra Geothermal has commenced exploration at the Reese River, Nevada site with the drilling of test wells. In a press release, Sierra announced the results of the first round of test drilling: at a depth of 3,930 feet (1,198 m) the team encountered temperatures of 256 degrees F (110C) with a consistent temperature gradient throughout the well indicating that still hotter temperatures may exist deeper in the anomaly.

Reese River was first explored in 1970’s by Phillips Petroleum and Amax Exploration who drilled 52 temperature gradient wells over a decade. Based on the results of this exploration, the anomaly is believed to be 3 miles (4.8km) long by 1 mile (1.6km) wide and believed to possess temperature gradients on average of over 225C per km in depth.

Geothermex, a geothermal reservoir engineering company, estimates there is a 90% probability that Reese River will produce 13MW and a 50% probability that it will produce 30MW. While it’s certain that Sierra hoped to reach higher temperatures in their test wells at this depth, the outcome is not bad. It confirms the anomaly and permeability of the rock layer. The missing piece of information in this release is the flow test data (though it’s unclear if the well was tested in this way.)

This constitutes progress in Sierra’s bid to develop the Reese River site.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 16th, 2007 at 2:09 pm and is filed under Geothermal.