Mining the Earth's Heat: Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy

Donald W. Brown was instrumental in the establishment, in 1971, of the very successful Hot Dry Rock (HDR) Geothermal Energy Program at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. He directed the early geological and geophysical reconnaissance work in the Jemez Mountains, directed the drilling and testing program in the first deep exploratory well, and in late 1973 selected Fenton Hill (36 km west of Los Alamos) as the Laboratory's HDR Test Site. Don was the HDR Project Manager through the difficult period from 1983 to 1985, when the deeper (4000-m) reservoir at Fenton Hill was first created by hydraulic stimulation and then tested as a closed-loop circulating system. He subsequently served as the lead reservoir engineer for the HDR Project from 1992 through 1995, a time that covers the successful flow testing of the deeper HDR reservoir at Fenton Hill.

• PART I Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy: History and Potential ofthe Newest and Largest Renewable Energy Resource.- PART II First Demonstration of the Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy.- Concept: Development of the Phase I Reservoir at Fenton Hill.- PART III Engineering the HDR System: Development and Testing of the Phase II Reservoir at Fenton Hill.- PART IV Future Outlook for Hot Dry Rock.- Appendix.- Glossary.- Bibliography.- Index.