Steamboat Springs Geothermal Field

SB Geo Inc. operates four generating plants as a combined facility located near the junction of U.S. Highway 395 and State Route 431. The SB Geo wells produce from fractured material along a north-northeast-striking fault zone. Submersible pump technology application studies at the plant are ongoing, and a high-efficiency turbine retrofit was completed in 2001. The U.S. Department of Energy provided initial funds ($200,000) to Steamboat Envirosystems LLC to evaluate enhanced geothermal systems technology at Steamboat, and $270,000 for geothermal resource exploration and definition through the GeoPowering the West program. In 2001, SB Geo drilled a 610-m temperature slim hole on its Meyberg Property, 1.5 km south of the SB Geo plants. A maximum temperature of 162C between 335 and 427 m was measured; temperatures decrease below this interval.