U.S. Geothermal Continues Successful Development Of The Raft River Geothermal Resource
Boise, ID - U.S. Geothermal Inc., a renewable energy development company focused on the production of electricity from geothermal energy, announced its continued success in developing the geothermal resources at the construction site of its binary cycle geothermal plant at Raft River in southeastern Idaho.
As part of its ongoing well improvement program, U.S. Geothermal recently completed drilling work on production well RRG-4. A new directional leg, which targeted the Bridge fault zone, was successfully drilled through several high permeability fracture zones. Subsequent flow test results show that RRG-4 will now be a substantial commercial production well feeding the Phase 1 power plant.
The recent work on RRG-4 comes after the October 2006 deepening and testing of two injection wells that validated a reservoir model showing an extensive geothermal resource underlying the Raft River site.
U.S. Geothermal's well drilling operations have moved to RRG-3, where the well's existing leg was deepened from 5,937 feet to 6,185 feet and a new second leg was drilled to a depth of 5,735 feet. Several highly permeable sand layers, fractures and lost circulation zones were encountered in the new leg. Well testing is scheduled after the completion of drilling operations.
"The results of the current drilling program are significant because we have shown that the hot geothermal reservoir extends all the way out to our planned injection well sites. The next step for the drill program is to add a new injection well into a thick, loosely consolidated sand layer that is expected to be a good location for long term fluid injection," said Daniel Kunz, President and Chief Executive Officer of U.S. Geothermal Inc.
Work on the Raft River power plant and pipeline continues on schedule. Ormat Nevada Inc., a subsidiary of Ormat Technologies Inc., the contracting firm building the Raft River power plant, started fabrication in November of the Ormat Energy Converter, one of the primary plant components. On site, the first concrete for the cooling tower basin was placed and excavation work for the turbine/generator and condenser foundations has begun.
Construction of the above ground production and injection pipelines is approximately 95 percent complete, but further pipeline work has been suspended until spring when the final connections to the wellheads will be made and the pipe insulation installed.
Raft River Rural Electric Coop, the local utility, has begun construction of the 3.2-mile power line that will transmit power output from the project's first phase to Idaho Power Company, U.S. Geothermal's customer for the power.
Idaho Power recently notified U.S. Geothermal that its 52-megawatt power sales proposal, submitted in response to a request for proposals issued by Idaho Power in June, has been short-listed. The new 52-megawatt proposal would amend a current power purchase agreement between Idaho Power and U.S. Geothermal to include the full 13-megawatt output of Raft River's first phase, deliver 13 megawatts of power generation from Raft River's planned third phase, and deliver 26 megawatts of power from the company's property at Neal Hot Springs, Oregon. Idaho Power is scheduled to make the final selection of geothermal power projects for contract negotiations by the end of February 2007. Parts of the proposal to Idaho Power are contingent upon successful drilling and geothermal resource definition at Raft River and Neal Hot Springs.
SOURCE: U.S. Geothermal Inc.