San Antonio Air Force facility to pilot advanced geothermal tech
Arrival of F-15EX Eagle at the Joint Base San Antonio (source: Joint Base San Antonio / flickr, Creative Commons)
Carlo Cariaga
1 Dec 2023
Preparations are underway for a geothermal power project in Joint Base San Antonio, providing energy security and resiliency to the US Air Force facility.
The Joint Base San Antonio (JBSA) of the United States Air Force in San Antonio, Texas is already in the process of preparing for a utility-scale geothermal power project that will supply clean and reliable energy to the facility even in the event of commercial grid outages. Feasibility studies and testing of the site’s potential is set to begin within 2024 and are expected to take up to 2 years.
The JBSA is one of four U.S. Department of Defense facilities to sign agreements this year for the deployment of geothermal technologies. The project in the JBSA will be carried out with Eavor Technologies Inc., a company developing deep closed-loop geothermal solutions or advanced geothermal systems.
Eavor is currently drilling for the first commercial-scale deployment of their closed-loop geothermal technology in Geretsried, Germany, following the success of a demonstration facility in Alberta, Canada.
The JBSA was selected as the site for one of the pilot projects because of a favorable subsurface heat profile. “There’s effectively a dome of heat on the south side of San Antonio that brings heat closer to the surface than in other points on the earth,” said Kirk Phillips, director of the Air Force Office of Energy Assurance in Washington D.C.
The proposed geothermal plant will be located on a 17-acre site at the Chapman annex of the Air Force facility. This site has good connections to the local electricity provider, CPS Energy. The JBSA will still rely on the grid for primary power, with the geothermal power plant providing a reliable layer of redundancy.
“We are working to generate innovative, long-term and self-sustaining energy solutions for our mission’s future,” said Air Force Brig. Gen. Russell D. Driggers, Commander at JBSA. “With this pilot project, JBSA has an opportunity to spearhead innovations in clean energy and resilient infrastructure.”
Source: San Antonio Express News
