Drilling for Hot Water, Not Oil, In the Valley

Today the heat has mostly passed, and we have a little break from the pounding rain. I'm in my favorite window seat at the cafe, and just finished a quick read--Tuesday's Daily Hampshire Gazette. On page one was a story about a guy I've met before (but can't recall where!) named David Reynolds. His company is called Atlantic Geothermal, and he wants to drill a 16' wide hole 30,000 feet below ground and heat water.

Down there of course, the magma of the Earth's center is very, very hot, and the concept is that you send water down there and use it at a boiling 300 degrees to make steam to spin turbines. In Ireland, said Reynolds, nineteen percent of their energy is made this way. Like many good ideas this one may be a little premature, since it would cost $500 million to drill this very deep hole and set up the turbines. Reynolds is trying to raise the money with a lure of a 50-year energy contract for just two cents a kilowatt. Some people are skeptical about that figure.

At a recent meeting, the best Reynolds was able to do was to get Representative John Olver to say that he thinks by 2010, there might be a role for federal money. Others encouraged him to just drill the hole, suggesting that a gusher of super heated water might bring state and federal officials in, offering job creation incentives.

"It's a tough sale," said Reynolds. "But I think to a shrewd person, it's a very attractive sell."