Calpine Geothermal Visitor Center Upgrade Project--An Interactive Approach to Geothermal Outreach and Education at The Geysers

Abstract

The Calpine Geothermal Visitor Center in Middletown, California, opened in 2001 with a series of displays highlighting the history and geology of The Geysers, geothermal drilling and power production technologies, and the Santa Rosa and Lake County wastewater to electricity projects. As part of a DOE-funded Enhanced Geothermal System field demonstration project at The Geysers, Calpine, in partnership with DOE, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Gyroscope, Inc., and Group Delphi, is conducting a major upgrade of the Visitor Center displays. The upgraded Visitor Center exhibits provide interactive displays that are designed to educate visitors about the key issues and benefits associated with geothermal energy. In addition to revisions of existing displays, new exhibits have been created to examine sustainable energy options and the challenges and potential of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The EGS exhibit describes the large scale resources that have been identified throughout the US, and provides examples from a number of the DOE EGS demonstration projects. The exhibit illustrates the need for stimulating existing fractures to create fluid flow paths required to extract energy from the hot rocks, and that this process can result in induced seismicity. Public acceptance of EGS is dependent on such educational efforts. The upgraded exhibits are scheduled to be completed in the summer of 2012.