Brawley--Resurrection of a Previously Developed Geothermal Field
- Key words
- Brawley; Ormat; Geothermal; Imperial County; California
- Location
- Brawley, California; Imperial Valley
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 2008
- Session
- Exploration; Drilling
- Language
- English
Abstract
The Brawley Geothermal Field was originally developed by Unocal. In addition to drilling geothermal wells, this development included building and operating a 10 MWe power plant. Corrosion and scaling issues resulted in Unocal abandoning the project in the 1980’s. Ormat Nevada investigated the potential of the shallow sands in 2006. It was concluded that these matrixpermeable sands contained moderately saline water, high porosity, and could support a binary-type power plant. In 2007, Ormat Nevada drilled and tested five wells. These test results confirmed the earlier conclusions and a 49.9 MWe power plant is presently being constructed.
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