Beowawe Hot Springs Geothermal Area

Resource Area: Beowawe Hot Springs Geothermal Area

Details
Technical Info
Geology
Power Plants (1)
Projects (0)
Activities (8)

Geothermal Area Profile
Location	Beowawe, Nevada
Exploration Region	Central Nevada Seismic Zone
GEA Development Phase	Operational
Coordinates	40.57°, -116.58° Loading map... {"minzoom":false,"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","type":"ROADMAP","zoom":14,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"geoservice":"google","maxzoom":false,"width":"600px","height":"350px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","visitedicon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"wmsoverlay":"","layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"kml":[],"gkml":[],"fusiontables":[],"resizable":false,"tilt":0,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"imageoverlays":[],"markercluster":false,"searchmarkers":"","locations":[{"text":"","title":"","link":null,"lat":40.57,"lon":-116.58,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""}]} Display map
2008 USGS Resource Estimate
Mean Reservoir Temp	215°C488.15 K 419 °F 878.67 °R
Estimated Reservoir Volume	4.5 km³4,500,000,000 m³ 1.08 mi³ 158,916,000,244.5 ft³ 5,885,777,785.5 yd³ 4,500,000,000,000 L
Mean Capacity	54.11 MW54,110 kW 54,110,000 W 54,110,000,000 mW 0.0541 GW 5.411e-5 TW
Power Production Profile
Gross Production Capacity
Net Production Capacity
Number of Operating Plants	1
Owners	Beowawe Power LLC
Power Purchasers
Other Uses
References	Geothermal Resource Assessment of the U.S. (USGS)^[1] Online Nevada Encyclopedia^[2] Nevada's Beowawe Geothermal Plant Begins Generating Clean Energy U.S. Energy Secretary Highlights CO^[3] Terra-Gen Power and TAS Celebrate Innovative Binary Geothermal Technology^[4] Beowawe Geothermal Field - Online Nevada Encyclopedia^[5] Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology^[6] Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology^[7] Friends of Black Rock/High Rock^[8] Friends of Black Rock/High Rock^[9] Nevada's Beowawe Geothermal Plant Begins Generating Clean Energy U.S. Energy Secretary Highlights CO^[10] Structural Control and Alteration at Beowawe KGRA, NEVADA^[11] Flow and Permeability Structure of the Beowawe, Nevada Hydrothermal System^[12] Assessment of Favorable Structural Settings of Geothermal Systems in the Great Basin, Western USA^[13] A Simple Basin and Range Fault Model for the Beowawe Geothermal System, Nevada^[14]

Area Overview

History and Infrastructure

Regulatory and Environmental Issues

Future Plans

References

Well Field Information
Number of Production Wells
Number of Injection Wells
Number of Replacement Wells
Average Temperature of Geofluid (°C)
Sanyal Classification (Wellhead)	Moderate Temperature
Reservoir Temp (Geothermometry)	227°C ^[1] "°C^[1]" is not declared as a valid unit of measurement for this property. The given value was not understood.
Sanyal Classification (Reservoir)	Moderate Temperature
Depth to Top of Reservoir	The given value was not understood.
Average Depth to Reservoir	850m0.85 km 0.528 mi 2,788.714 ft 929.569 yd
Development Area
First Discovery Well
Completion Date
Well Name
Location
Depth
Initial Flow Rate (kg/s)
Flow Test Comment
Initial Temperature
Well Log

Technical Problems and Solutions

In the first year of Beowawe’s operation, a reduction in temperature and pressure in the reservoir caused a noticeable decline in plant production. It was discovered that the spent brine was being injected outside of the geothermal reservoir. Without the reinjection, the reservoir suffered a loss of pressure, which allowed cold ground water to flow into and cool the geothermal reservoir. Eventually, the pressure was stabilized in the reservoir by the influx of cold water. In the next 8 years however, the cooling continued so significantly that it brought the temperatures of the wells down by 38°F and power production declined to about 12.5 MW by mid-1991. In July of 1991 a new, large production well was drilled and began production in an effort to cure the current situation, which increased the total flow rate from about 375 to 500 pounds per second (lbs/s) and restored full plant electrical output, but hastened the overall decline in pressure in the geothermal field. By 1993 the gross power output had declined again to about 15 MW.^[3]

The problem was addressed by engineers and geologists by shifting to new injection strategies. The new strategy, undertaken in February 1994, involved switching injection to well 85-18, which was closer to the production wells and in much better hydraulic communication with the reservoir. The new injection provided more pressure support to the reservoir, slowing the influx of colder groundwater. This increased the combined flow rate of the three production wells to 4,090 gpm and reduced the decline rate of temperature over the course of the following two years. The plant resumed full output of 16.7 MW by the third quarter of 1994, but it again started to decline, starting at a rate of about 0.4 MW per year. By mid-1997 the rate of decline in gross power output slowed to approximately 0.15 MW per year, with negligible power decline by summer of 1998.^[4] A number of studies, including a numerical model by GeothermEx in 2004 have evaluated the temperature decline and subsequent renewal of the Beowawe geothermal reservoir, giving a better understanding of subsurface fluid flow in the area. These studies make use of a wealth of historical data of reservoir pressures, non-condensable gas concentrations, enthalpy values, reservoir temperatures, and tracer test results to insure that the model closely represents the performance of the Beowawe reservoir. These studies helped increase the plant gross output to 17.7 MW by 2006. The success of these injection strategies and subsequent modeling has increased knowledge of geothermal reservoirs’ recharge and has improved the industry’s ability to overcome similar reservoir temperature and pressure declines in other development areas, especially in the Basin and Range.

Geologic Setting
Exploration Region	Central Nevada Seismic Zone
Tectonic Setting	Extensional Tectonics
Controlling Structure	Pull-Apart in Strike-Slip Fault Zone^[5] "Pull-Apart in Strike-Slip Fault Zone^[5]" cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. The given value was not understood.
Topographic_Features	Horst and Graben
Brophy Model	Type E: Extensional Tectonic, Fault-Controlled Resource
Geologic Features
Modern Geothermal Features
Relict Geothermal Features	Hydrothermal Alteration; hydrothermal deposition^[1] "Hydrothermal Alteration; hydrothermal deposition^[1]" cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. The given value was not understood.
Volcanic Age	no volcanism
Host Rock Age	Ordovician ^[2] "Ordovician ^[2]" cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. The given value was not understood.
Host Rock Lithology	shale; quartzite^[2] "shale; quartzite^[2]" cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. The given value was not understood.
Cap Rock Age	Tertiary^[1] "Tertiary^[1]" cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. The given value was not understood.
Cap Rock Lithology	Tuffaceous sedimentary^[1] "Tuffaceous sedimentary^[1]" cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. The given value was not understood.
Geochemistry
Salinity (low)	350^[2] "350^[2]" cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. The given value was not understood.
Salinity (high)	1050^[2] "1050^[2]" cannot be used as a page name in this wiki. The given value was not understood.
Salinity (average)	700
Brine Constituents
Water Resistivity

Geology of the Area

Beowawe Geothermal Facility

Geothermal Development Projects in the Area (per GEA's Annual U.S. Geothermal Power Production and Development Report (April 2011))

Page	Technique	Reference Material
Aerial Photography At Beowawe Hot Springs Area (Wesnousky, Et Al., 2003)	Aerial Photography	Recency Of Faulting And Neotechtonic Framework In The Dixie Valley Geothermal Field And Other Geothermal Fields Of The Basin And Range
Compound and Elemental Analysis At Beowawe Hot Springs Area (Wood, 2002)	Compound and Elemental Analysis	Behavior Of Rare Earth Element In Geothermal Systems, A New Exploration-Exploitation Tool
Direct-Current Resistivity At Beowawe Hot Springs Area (Garg, Et Al., 2007)	Direct-Current Resistivity Survey	Use Of Electrical Surveys For Geothermal Reservoir Characterization- Beowawe Geothermal Field
Direct-Current Resistivity Survey At Beowawe Hot Springs Area (Garg, Et Al., 2007)	Direct-Current Resistivity Survey	Use Of Electrical Surveys For Geothermal Reservoir Characterization- Beowawe Geothermal Field
Field Mapping At Beowawe Hot Springs Area (Wesnousky, Et Al., 2003)	Field Mapping	Recency Of Faulting And Neotechtonic Framework In The Dixie Valley Geothermal Field And Other Geothermal Fields Of The Basin And Range
Magnetotellurics At Beowawe Hot Springs Area (Garg, Et Al., 2007)	Magnetotellurics	Use Of Electrical Surveys For Geothermal Reservoir Characterization- Beowawe Geothermal Field
Self Potential At Beowawe Hot Springs Area (Garg, Et Al., 2007)	Self Potential	Use Of Electrical Surveys For Geothermal Reservoir Characterization- Beowawe Geothermal Field
Water Sampling At Beowawe Hot Springs Area (Wood, 2002)	Water Sampling	Behavior Of Rare Earth Element In Geothermal Systems, A New Exploration-Exploitation Tool

List of existing Geothermal Resource Areas: Category:Geothermal Resource Areas

Print PDF

Cite error: <ref> tags exist, but no <references/> tag was found

[USGS2008-1] "Geothermal Resource Assessment of the U.S. (USGS)"

[ONE-2] 2.0 ^2.1 "Online Nevada Encyclopedia"

[News2011-3] 3.0 ^3.1 "Nevada's Beowawe Geothermal Plant Begins Generating Clean Energy U.S. Energy Secretary Highlights CO"

[Terra-Gen2011-4] 4.0 ^4.1 "Terra-Gen Power and TAS Celebrate Innovative Binary Geothermal Technology"

[ONE2010-5] "Beowawe Geothermal Field - Online Nevada Encyclopedia"

[NBMG-6] "Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology"

[NBMG2-7] 7.0 ^7.1 "Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology"

[FBR-8] "Friends of Black Rock/High Rock"

[FBR2-9] "Friends of Black Rock/High Rock"

[StateNews2011-10] "Nevada's Beowawe Geothermal Plant Begins Generating Clean Energy U.S. Energy Secretary Highlights CO"

[a16-11] "Structural Control and Alteration at Beowawe KGRA, NEVADA"

[a20-12] "Flow and Permeability Structure of the Beowawe, Nevada Hydrothermal System"

[a9-13] "Assessment of Favorable Structural Settings of Geothermal Systems in the Great Basin, Western USA"

[a17-14] "A Simple Basin and Range Fault Model for the Beowawe Geothermal System, Nevada"

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]

[1]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[2]

Beowawe Hot Springs Geothermal Area

From Open Energy Information

Resource Area: Beowawe Hot Springs Geothermal Area

References