| Title | Multimodal Geothermal Development in the Tularosa Basin, NM |
|---|---|
| Authors | Benjamin BARKER, Gregory NASH, Joseph MOORE, Carlon BENNETT |
| Year | 2015 |
| Conference | Stanford Geothermal Workshop |
| Keywords | Tularosa, low temperature, cascaded use, military |
| Abstract | The Tularosa Basin extends over 275 km of sparsely populated desert from the middle of New Mexico to the 831,000 metropolis of El Paso, Texas. It varies in width from 50-100 km over most of its length. This vast area includes large parts of the White Sands Missile Range, Fort Bliss and Holloman Air Force Base, three of the largest U.S. military reservations in the nation. This area has excited little geothermal interest over the years, but it may be on the verge of hosting some of the more interesting multimodal geothermal developments in the near future. The dominant land position of the military has kept much of the basin off limits to geothermal exploration in past decades. Exploration of the Rio Grande Rift Zone, of which the Tularosa Basin is part, has found numerous warm springs but little electric utility-grade resources. However, the recent success of a DOE-sponsored drilling project, the availability of appropriate technology in the form of small binary generators, and the changing needs of the military make the area ripe for significant developments. In 2013 the El Paso County Geothermal Project at Fort Bliss drilled a 10 MW (thermal)-class well 40 km north of El Paso on the McGregor Range. This is in an area of four ~1 km slim holes drilled in 1996-7 by Sandia National Laboratory and confirms the existence of a usable resource. The military has been charged with developing secure renewable energy supplies of 3000 MW, and a pilot test using the McGregor wells for power and direct heat is being proposed at Fort Bliss. DOE selected the Tularosa Basin for a Play Fairway project in 2014 and this should provide further impetus and guidance for geothermal exploration further north. |