KU News Release

LAWRENCE — University of Kansas geologists have embarked on the first phase of a $4.2 million, three-year project designed to make it easier and more profitable to power electric plants with geothermal energy.

The effort is one of only 24 projects funded by the U.S. Department of Energy under its Innovative Exploration and Drilling Program. KU’s Department of Geology received $2.4 million in federal stimulus funding to help pay for the project. The rest of the funding came from the department and its collaborators, the University of Oklahoma and the Sierra Geothermal Power Corp.

Daniel Stockli, associate professor of geology, and his students Josh Feldman and Josh Burris start work this month in Nevada’s Clayton Valley, 150 miles from Reno. Their first task is to create detailed maps of the surface and subsurface. They have been joined in Nevada by a team of Oklahoma geophysicists led by Katie Keranen, an assistant professor at OU. J. Douglas Walker, a professor of geology at KU, is also working on the project.

Geothermal energy uses the heat from subterranean hot springs and other geothermal sources to generate power. Today, geothermal plants provide electricity to customers in only six states, but the potential is far larger.

“The United States is blessed with vast geothermal resources, which hold enormous potential to heat our homes and power our economy,” Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement. “These investments in America’s technological innovation will allow us to capture more of this clean, carbon free energy at a lower cost than ever before.”

In the past, explorers seeking geothermal reservoirs looked for steam coming out of the ground, Walker said. “We said, ‘Let’s not worry about whether there are any surface manifestations of heat. Let’s think about the geology of the subsurface first and then go from there.’ ”

The project’s most innovative aspects include its use of 3-D and 4-D thermochronometry and the integration of traditional geological methods with geophysical tools like seismic imaging, Stockli said. The team plans to create 3-D maps of the surface and subsurface and to provide an assessment of the temperature history of the valley’s subsurface.

Thermochronometry reads radioisotopic signatures preserved in minerals and rocks and charts temperature changes. The term “4-D” refers to a geologic feature’s height, depth, width and evolution over time. Seismic imaging sends an intense sound pulse into the ground and creates images out of the echoes from these blasts.

This data will be used to find the best sites for test drilling. Core samples and well data from those test holes will enable the team to predict the area’s geothermal potential.

KU students will work on every aspect of the project along with students from the department’s diversity outreach program at the University of Puerto Rico in Mayagüez.

“They’ll be out there with hard hats on,” Stockli said.