Designs of an HDR reservoir at Clearlake, California

The Clearlake area of California lies within the Geysers/Clearlake geothermal anomaly, a region of some 270 square miles in Sonoma and Lake Counties exhibiting elevated heat flow. The bulk of the electric power generated from geothermal resources in the United States is produced from this geothermal anomaly. However, the quantity of the Hot Dry Rock (HDR) resource within the Geysers/Clearlake geothermal anomaly is vastly larger than that of the hydrothermal resource, and could provide the basis for significant further electric power production. Of most interest from the standpoint of demonstrating the Hot Dry Rock (HDR) resource in this region is the extremely high heat flow that surrounds the City of Clearlake, as attested to by the very high temperatures measured in numerous dry (i.e., hydrothermally nonproductive) holes drilled there over the past 20 years.