David Blackwell
Fast Company: How Google Cash Helped Find Geothermal Energy in West Virginia
The business innovation magazine Fast Company took note of the SMU Geothermal Laboratory‘s recent report on the large green-energy geothermal resource underground in West Virginia. The research was funded by Google.org, the philanthropic arm of Google.com. SMU geologist David Blackwell leads the SMU lab and its research.
The Oct. 8 article in Fast Company is one of many stories published by the U.S. media about the recent report by scientists in the SMU Geothermal Laboratory.
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Science: West Virginia is geothermal hot spot, says SMU Geothermal Lab
Science, the international weekly science journal, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has covered the geothermal mapping research of the Southern Methodist University’s Geothermal Laboratory, led by SMU geologist David Blackwell and funded by Google.org.
The Oct. 4 article “West Virginia is a Geothermal Hot Spot” by science journalist Eli Kintisch quotes Maria Richards, coordinator of the SMU Geothermal Laboratory.
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West Virginia is hot bed for geothermal resources: Green energy source in coal country, says Google-funded SMU research
New research by SMU’s Geothermal Laboratory, funded by a Google.org grant, suggests the Earth’s temperature beneath West Virginia is significantly higher than previously estimated.
The finding suggests the resource in West Virginia could support commercial baseload geothermal energy production, says SMU’s David Blackwell.
Geothermal energy is the use of the Earth’s heat to produce heat and electricity. “Geothermal is an extremely reliable form of energy, and it generates power 24/7, which makes it a baseload source like coal or nuclear,” said David Blackwell, Hamilton Professor of Geophysics and Director of the SMU Geothermal Laboratory. (Photo: Yellowstone hot springs)
SMU Geothermal Lab and DOE host Wyoming geothermal conference
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center, RMOTC, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, NREL, and Southern Methodist University Geothermal Laboratory, hosted a two-day “Geothermal in the Oil Field” symposium in Casper, Wyo., Aug. 18-19, 2010.
The event highlighted the application of low-temperature geothermal power production in oil and gas operations and other settings in the western United States.
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DOE awards SMU $5.25 million to expand U.S. geothermal production
The Geothermal Laboratory at SMU has been awarded $5.25 million by the U.S. Department of Energy to help provide data for the planned National Geothermal Data System.
The grant allocation is part of $338 million in Recovery Act funding that was announced Oct. 29 by DOE Secretary Steven Chu. The funding is intended to help dramatically expand geothermal production in the United States.
SMU will work with a diverse team of experts from academia, industry and national labs with experience in conventional hydrothermal geothermal resource assessment, Enhanced Geothermal Systems, oil and gas data, geopressure geothermal and produced water non-conventional geothermal systems in providing the data.
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Geothermal heat: Will Earth’s “hot rocks” become new “Texas tea”?
Texas, which has been the nation’s largest fossil-fuel producer, also has an abundant supply of another natural resource for a different kind of energy boom: clean, renewable, geothermal energy.
Like the oil and gas beneath Texas, there’s a huge quantity of naturally occurring “hot rocks” underground that could be tapped for geothermal energy to produce electricity, according to new research by SMU scientists. South and East Texas have an abundant supply, say the researchers. Continue reading
SMU conference: Geothermal energy from oil, gas wells
Enhancing existing oil and gas wells for the purpose of producing electricity from the Earth’s heat will be the focus of an annual international geothermal conference at SMU in November. The conference is coordinated by the SMU Geothermal Laboratory and … Continue reading
Posted in Earth & Climate, Energy & Matter, Events, Technology
Tagged David Blackwell, Dedman College, Maria Richards, SMU Geothermal Lab
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Earth’s inner heat holds promise of generating much-needed electric power in Northern Mariana Islands
A chain of 14, breathtaking Pacific islands is paradise lost without reliable electricity.
The Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. commonwealth some 1,500 miles east of the Philippines, has seen its garment industry waste away in the face of global competition. Attracting replacement industry is difficult, in part because of the commonwealth’s undependable power supply. Rolling blackouts are the norm, caused by aging power plant equipment and the irregular delivery of expensive, imported diesel to run the plants. Continue reading
Posted in Earth & Climate, Economics & Statistics, Energy & Matter
Tagged David Blackwell, Dedman College, Geothermal Map of North America, Maria Richards, SMU Geothermal Lab
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