Sonoma Clean Power is looking underground to power the future. At a February 6 town hall in Cloverdale, SCP officials laid out their ambitious plans to tap into the GeoZone—a vast geothermal field beneath Sonoma and Mendocino counties—with the goal of adding 600 megawatts of clean, locally produced energy. The meeting drew an engaged audience eager to weigh in on the project’s potential benefits and challenges.
SCP is exploring the possibilities in the large geothermal field that sits beneath Sonoma and Mendocino Counties, called the GeoZone. SCP is working with three developers who want to invest in clean jobs in our community, Chevron New Energies, CYRQ Energy, and Eavor. SCP hopes to add 600 megawatts of new energy to Sonoma and Mendocino Counties by developing the GeoZone.
By building new power locally we won’t have to import energy from Utah, Nevada, or Southern California. Locally produced geothermal energy will provide jobs and tax revenues locally. This clean energy can add to the sustainability of the grid. These projects are anticipated to provide jobs in construction, maintenance, and operations. These are similar to the type of jobs you would find in an oil field pipeline, but they produce clean energy instead of oil and gas. Cloverdale Mayor Todd Lands said, “It sounds like a great idea. Calpine has created good jobs locally for 50 years.”
SCP gained permission from California State Legislature to develop the Geozone. Miles Horton, SCP’s Legislative Policy & Community Engagement Manager, explained that Calpine is already engaged in our community. Calpine runs an existing geothermal plant at the Geysers, located in the eastern hills of Sonoma County near the Lake County line, that is already providing clean energy 24 hours a day. “We are looking to expand that sort of partnership. If we can pull this off, the effects will be profound. There will be a lot of big advantages to our community. This is the tip of the spear taking on climate change,” said Horton.
SCP provides solar power, but during the winter when there is less sunlight, SCP has to buy dirty energy produced by gas plants in Los Angeles. The gas comes from fracking, and the aging gas plants are incredibly expensive to maintain. The new geothermal technology uses the energy from underground steam to run turbines and generators. The water is then cooled and injected back underground. The new technology uses a closed loop system, with a defined amount of water, and will not harm the water supply.
Sonoma and Mendocino Counties sit on top of a lot of hot volcanic rock that is already fractured. Traditional geothermal technology uses natural steam coming out of the ground. The next generation of enhanced geothermal uses fracking, drilling thousands of feet below ground. This was described as threading a needle through rock versus broadcasting fractures as far as possible, as is done in oil and gas fracking. Geothermal uses a localized, pinpoint area. They drill 8,000 to 10,000 feet deep, well below the groundwater basins. In oil and gas fracking, the water is injected with toxic chemicals to help pull the gas out of the rock. It can pollute and contaminate groundwater and cause earthquakes. It fuels climate change. Unlike oil and gas fracking, geothermal doesn’t need to inject toxic chemicals underground.
Geothermal actually works better in cold weather, as the cold air creates more steam. It complements solar power, which produces more in warm weather.
SCP plans a pilot project to produce 20 megawatts of power. Eventually, SCP anticipates expanding to the 600 megawatt project.
Even though the GeoZone covers two counties, the new generation geothermal projects are anticipated to be a complex of buildings, not taking up a lot of land. SCP CEO Geof Syphers said “The new technology doesn’t have surface tubes on the ground like the Geysers does. The new technology only uses 5% of the land of the existing Geysers. Most of the work is underground.”
An audience member expressed his opinion, saying “It will be a success or debacle depending on the qualification and the qualities of local government. I worked in Kentucky. The technology was in place to protect the aquifers, but weak and insufficient local government regulations caused the aquifers to be ruined for generations. The big corporation came in and took over. All of [the groundwater pollution] was preventable. The county must be vigilant.” The audience applauded. Mayor Land said, “I 100% agree. I’ve been here five years as a mayor. I’ve been on the School Board for 10 years. A leader surrounds himself with people who are smarter and better. We will be monitoring the whole process.” It was further pointed out that the type of fracking for oil and gas is done with far more toxic effects than Geothermal fracking, which does not add chemicals underground.
A Calpine employee asked why SCP is seeking new corporate partners? Why not simply expand the Calpine plant? Syphers replied that “Calpine is incredibly inspiring. We want to see how we can next expand on what they’ve done.” The Geysers site has steam coming up from the ground. This is not available everywhere, and the new technology drills farther underground, injecting water into the hot rock.
An audience member said, “I live near the Geysers. We experience earthquakes nearly every day. What is PG&E’s role? How are you going to prevent earthquakes?” Syphers said, “600 megawatts would provide all the electricity for Sonoma and Mendocino for an all electric future. . . . If we don’t need all 600 megawatts, then there are plenty of other people who want it. PG&E is in the delivery business. They will probably build transmission capacity. . . . Sonoma Clean Power wants to get in early, rather than let outsiders develop it.”
Regarding earthquakes, SCP is reviewing studies from Utah Forge, described on its website as “. . . a dedicated underground field laboratory sponsored by the Department of Energy (DOE) for developing, testing, and accelerating breakthroughs in Enhanced Geothermal Systems technologies to advance the uptake of geothermal resources around the world.” They are developing a protocol for earthquake safety, using a stoplight system of green, yellow, red to monitor earthquake danger. The questioner pointed out that the Utah red light system is only for earthquakes 2.0 and over. The response was that the thresholds can be set lower than 2.0.
Another audience member asked how are you going to develop thousands of new jobs, when the road to the Geyers is dangerous, narrow, and often a two-hour drive from town because of poor road conditions. How will all those new commuters affect the people who live on the road? The answer is that we don’t yet know where the new projects will be located. The new projects may be located closer to town, and will have newly developed roads, including critical fire roads.
It will take until the mid-2030s to begin producing power. This is a long-term project, and SCP is holding town hall meetings to inform and engage the public at these early stages.
Uh, DOE is a federal agency – counting on the information related to protocols that they’ve developed for earthquake safety being around much longer (if it even still is now) seems a bit risky.
we’ve learned nothing
It often skips their mind that a large portion of the Geothermal zone is actually located in Lake County.
You know, that ugly stepchild county. No need to include them.
I moved to Lakeport back in 2017 after the naive and gullible voters slaughtered the goose that laid the golden egg.
I spent my long life growing up mostly in Ukiah and Hopland.
It’s funny how stereotypes go because in my opinion Lakeport is hands down a far nicer town to live in than Ukiah has been since the middle 80’s with the 1970’s being absolute best of times for both Hopland and Ukiah.
Lake port is so nice and they have doctors too
If Lakeport is better than Ukiah, why do so many from Lake county shop and work in the Mendo and the Ukiah area?
All good and fair questions.
Since that I am retired I can’t answer the work issue but let’s face it people from Willits and so forth commute to Ukiah for work and Sonoma County as do many Ukiah folks.
As far as shopping goes I and a lot of people from all over Mendocino and Lake counties make the trip to shop at Costco etc.
Lakeport just has a better vibe and less trouble than Ukiah in my opinion and there is even a small but sufficient natural foods store on the south end of town.
And of course there are less than desirable areas in lake county that you couldn’t pay me to live in but the truth is the very same goes for Mendocino County.
Lakeport seems like it was designed around being an old resort town. Ukiah was a commercial logistics town and still is today for the wider regional area. I guess it depends on what you value in the area. Lakeport, like Willits, have a heavy dependency Ukiah. The well being and health of Ukiah will diminish or expand the appeal in Willits and Lakeport at least from this point of view.
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My comments are being censored. Nothing inappropriate or rude or crude. Shedding truth on this sketchy article that’s far from truthful or forthcoming
Any drilling/fracking at those depths increase pressures on the earths tectonic plates, which increase the potential for earthquakes.
True that.
But on the flip side it’s most likely prolonging the inevitable awakening and long overdue eruption of the sleeping Mt Konocti and others by letting off some steam as the old cliché goes.That being said something crazy is bound and determined to happen over time and without warning when we start screwing around with mother earth like that.
The absence of “toxic chemicals” means nothing as far as potential contamination of the water aquifers. The drilling/fracking starts at the surface and once those impermeable layers of earth are penetrated the risks are great.
CalPine purchased the geysers geothermal power plants from PGE. They were forced by the Govt (CPUC) to sell them in the 90’s (not 50 years ago). One of many reasons the CPUC and Govt is to blame for expensive electricity.
SCP is a scam smoke and mirror show. They purchase “green energy” credits from out of state wind farms and resell PGE electricity repackaged as “green power”
SCP claims they generate electricity from local solar plant/arrays. Many do NOT generate any electricity the solar panels are not functioning, not maintained and are past their viable life. No different than the fake vacant cities in North Korea
They should build a pipeline from the Eel River in Potter Valley to the Geysers to inject water for more steam to increase production
Ha ha Paul I like your sarcastic sense of humor but that would go over like a turd in a punchbowl.
Blue lake would be a far better option as it does not seem to even shrink by an inch during the most severe of droughts including the worst dryspell in my lifetime during the 1970’s.
Thank you Paul!! So true….
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The hill right across from that old spot called Oasis, on Hwy 20 in between Clearlake Oaks and Williams.
Driving by about ten years ago, there was a steam vent that shot out the mountain over a hundred feet in the air. It was enough to pepper my truck and two other vehicles that were driving by at the same time with dirt and rocks.
Has anyone taken a look at that section of land before ?