SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A U.S. government-funded research project in Utah to study the feasibility of man-made geothermal energy will use a new type of directional drilling on two wells.
The Deseret News reports that University of Utah chemical engineering associate professor John McLennan says the advent of horizontal drilling and other new technology gives new hope to making man-made geothermal energy work.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced in June it had chosen the University of Utah to receive up to $140 million for a multiyear project aimed at advancing geothermal energy technologies with the goal of creating new sources for American energy.
McLennan says the first well is expected to be drilled in about a year at the site near Milford, in Beaver County.
Geothermal power stations take heat from deep inside the earth and turn it into electricity.
