2009 年，在麦卡伦西北约 45 英里的一块灌木覆盖的牛地上，壳牌公司掩埋并废弃了一口为寻找天然气而钻探的井。结果发现这口井是一个干井。该地点的植被又重新生长起来。

2021 年，一家由前壳牌员工经营的位于休斯敦的能源公司前来寻找。

不过，这家公司并不是从事石油或天然气钻探。它的工程师正在寻找一个地方来试验他们的技术，以生产由地球地下热量产生的地热能。

一家名为 Sage Geosystems 的初创公司租用了该场地。该公司安装了井口并引进了柴油动力泵。他们利用流体在地表深处的岩石中产生裂缝，这种技术类似于石油和天然气的水力压裂。

去年三月的一天，工作人员向这口 2 英里深的井中注入了 20,000 桶水。几个小时后，操作员从控制室打开了油井。当高压水喷涌而出时，地面上的管道震动。水旋转小型涡轮机发电。

Sage 和其他公司认为，地热能是取代污染严重的燃煤和燃气发电厂的关键。尽管太阳能和风能被证明是清洁能源，但它们只有在阳光照射或有风吹过时才能产生电力。地热能可以提供持续、无排放的能源。

“地热不存在这些可变条件，”德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校清洁能源专家迈克尔·韦伯说。 “如果你到达地下的一个热点——可能是在数千英尺深的地方——根据是否是多云还是夏季，热量并不重要。”

德克萨斯州已成为早期地热能勘探的热点地区。至少有 3 家公司的总部设在休斯顿，数十名前石油行业工人和高管正在将他们的地质、钻井和开采知识运用到新能源领域。

“自 Spindletop 以来，德克萨斯州的地面已被打出了超过 100 万个洞，”德克萨斯州前石油和天然气监管者巴里·史密瑟曼 (Barry Smitherman) 说，他现已成为地热倡导者。 “所以我们有很多知识，我们有很多历史和技能。”

在这里阅读完整的故事。

In 2009, on a plot of shrub-covered cattle land about 45 miles northwest of McAllen, Shell buried and abandoned a well it drilled to look for gas. The well turned out to be a dry hole. Vegetation grew back over the site.

In 2021, a Houston-based energy company run by former Shell employees came looking for it.

This company wasn’t drilling for oil or gas, though. Its engineers were looking for a place to experiment with their technology for producing geothermal energy, created by Earth’s underground heat.

A startup called Sage Geosystems leased the site. The company installed a wellhead and brought in a diesel-powered pump. They used fluid to create cracks in the rock deep below the surface, a technique similar to fracking for oil and gas.

One day last March, the crew pumped 20,000 barrels of water into the 2-mile-deep well. Hours later, an operator opened the well from a control room. Pipes above ground shook as the pressurized water gushed back up. The water spun small turbines, generating electricity.

Sage and other companies believe geothermal power is key to replacing polluting coal- and gas-fired power plants. Even though solar and wind are proven clean energy sources, they only produce electricity when the sun shines or the wind blows. Geothermal power could provide continuous, emissions-free energy.

“Geothermal heat doesn’t have those variable conditions,” University of Texas at Austin clean energy expert Michael Webber said. “If you hit a hot spot below ground—might be thousands of feet down—the heat won’t matter based on whether it’s cloudy or whether it’s summer.”

Texas has become an early hot spot for geothermal energy exploration. At least three companies are based in Houston, and scores of former oil industry workers and executives are taking their knowledge of geology, drilling and extraction to a new energy source.

“We’ve punched over a million holes in the ground in Texas since Spindletop,” said former Texas oil and gas regulator Barry Smitherman, who has become a geothermal advocate. “So we have a lot of knowledge, and we have a lot of history and skill set.”

Read the full story here.