BECKLEY — A new study suggests some areas of West Virginia may be a rich source of renewable energy capable of doubling the state’s electrical generating capacity.

Scientists at Southern Methodist University’s Geothermal Laboratory discovered that the temperature of the Earth beneath certain areas of the state is much higher than previous estimates. The hottest areas — below Tucker, Randolph, Pocahontas, and Greenbrier counties — show potential for use as a commercial baseload of geothermal energy production.

“As it turned out, when they went back and put it under a magnifying glass, West Virginia looked even better than it did in (a previous study),” said Brian Anderson, a chemical engineer with West Virginia University. “Nothing has changed underground; there is just better data.”

Anderson received a $1.2 million American Recovery and Reinvestment grant for geothermal energy research from the Department of Energy last year. He said geothermal energy is a highly promising source of renewable energy. Unlike wind and solar power, geothermal is not an intermittent source. It provides a predictable source of energy day and night, making it comparable to coal or nuclear power.

Zachary Frone, an SMU graduate student working on the project, said much of the data for the study was collected from existing oil and gas wells to calculate the temperatures at various depths.

“It looked like the temperature data was a little higher in that area prior to our study,” Frone said. “We added a lot more data and then the increase was much more noticeable.”

According to an abstract of the study, some of the findings make West Virginia the “most attractive area for geothermal energy development in the eastern one-third of the country.” Anderson said the study looked at some other states and found West Virginia was the “best apple of the crop.”

“The amount of heat available from the earth under the United States alone is enough to power the current U.S. energy demand for 10,000 years,” Anderson said. “You can consider the geothermal energy source an infinite energy source.”

State geologist Michael Hohn said currently the only geothermal energy being used in West Virginia is the direct heating of homes and businesses. He said deeper sources of geothermal energy are not currently utilized in the state.

“The projects going on around the world have been pretty limited in number,” Hohn said. “It’s a pretty new technology.”

Hohn said that West Virginia, already one of the highest energy-producing states on the East Coast, stands to become an even more dominant supply of power in light of the discovery.

Tapping the heat of the Earth is not without drawbacks. According to the Geothermal Education Office, production of carbon dioxide gas, a major contributor to global climate change, is only about four percent of that produced by conventional fossil fuel plants. Though emission of noxious or harmful chemicals is possible, existing geothermal plants have kept these emissions to mostly negligible levels.

“It is not emissionless,” Anderson said. “Some of these gases are trapped in the ground already, so if you start circulating water, some of those gases will escape. It’s not completely CO2-free, but it would be a lot lower than fossil fuels.”

Potential induction of seismic activity is another concern related to geothermal energy wells, which in some cases uses hydraulic fracturing techniques. The method, sometimes called “fracking,” is similar to the process used to extract natural gas from the Marcellus shale.

Anderson said environmental drawbacks are mostly manageable. A geothermal plant in Switzerland once induced a human-detectable earthquake on the surface, but advancement in the field has largely eliminated seismic dangers, Anderson said. Hohn said the incident in Switzerland was a result of scientists there who were “really pushing the envelope” on the pressure below ground.

“The expectation is that, at least in this state, geothermal projects in sedimentary rocks wouldn’t create an environmental hazard,” Hohn said.

Anderson said the seismic activity that may be produced would likely be minimal.

“There is a chance it could produce micro-seismic activity that could produce very small acoustic signals that are picked up by seismographs, but those are not really earthquakes,” Anderson said.

The difference is that an earthquake is a shift along a fault line, while the activity as a result of geothermal energy production would likely be undetectable without a seismograph.

The other drawback is cost. Anderson said a geothermal energy project will likely require at least part if not full government investment. He said the technology for developing geothermal energy is likely five years from being attractive to industrial investors. Hohn said the Department of Commerce Division of Energy is currently seeking funding and trying to generate an estimated economic impact in cooperation with Marshall University.

According to Frone, the geothermal industry has potential for success, but like other alternative energy sources, it has some engineering hurdles to clear first.

The process of creating a geothermal well requires drilling at much greater depths than natural gas extraction. More advanced technology would also be necessary to develop the equipment needed for a geothermal plant as well as further study of the potential sites.

“It’s in its early days yet,” Hohn said. “There is still more research to do to figure out more precisely what the temperatures are at those depths.”

The SMU Geothermal Laboratory estimated that the state’s geothermal generation potential is about 18,890 megawatts, or about 75 percent higher than previously estimated. Much of the difference, researchers say, is that data was collected from thermometer readings on the end of drilling equipment, but the readings were artificially deflated by water used to wash and cool the equipment.

According to the Energy Information Administration, West Virginia’s current generating capacity of 16,350 megawatts is about 97 percent coal-based.

The research is funded by Google.org, the nonprofit arm of the popular Web company Google, with a grant of $489,521 to improve geothermal resource assessment techniques and to update the Geothermal Map of North America. The organization has invested more than $10 million to advance the progress of developing enhanced geothermal systems.

The updated estimate comes from the addition of more than 1,400 thermal data points obtained from oil, gas and water wells. At depths ranging from just under two to five miles, temperatures in rock formations were found hovering near 400 degrees. Those temperatures, which also tend to increase at greater depth, are hot enough to generate geothermal energy.

Frone said the next step for researchers was to map the geothermal properties of other areas of the United States. He said further study of West Virginia could reveal that even more counties are positioned over potential geothermal energy wells.

“It appears to be hotter than other areas on the East Coast, but potentially, with more data, we could see if the higher levels of heat extend north or south,” Frone said. “Right now we don’t have the data to see that if it’s there.”

There are multiple ways to extract energy from the heat beneath the earth, but the method that would best suit West Virginia may only be determined after studies of various geological properties of a potential site.

The renewable resource will likely not be used locally. Electricity costs, mostly driven by West Virginia coal, are far too inexpensive to be replaced by geothermal energy. However, researchers believe that the proximity to population centers across the East Coast places West Virginia in a position to create jobs, reduce CO2 emissions, and lower dependence on foreign fuel sources.

“I actually do think it is something to be excited about,” Anderson said. “It’s another energy source that West Virginia has. It may be further down the economic tree, but it’s a reserve, or resource, of energy that West Virginia has that other places don’t.”

— E-mail: tkuykendall@register-herald.com