http://mailview.custombriefings.com/mailview.aspx?m=2009121101nspe&r=4310813-241a
"Switzerland Permanently Ends Controversial Geothermal Project.
The New York Times (12/11, A14, Glanz) reports, "A $60 million project
to extract renewable energy from the hot bedrock deep beneath Basel,
Switzerland, was shut down permanently on Thursday after a government
study" concluded that "earthquakes generated by the project were
likely to do millions of dollars in damage each year." The study's
conclusions "are a serious blow to the hopes...that advanced
geothermal energy could substantially cut the world's use of
emissions-causing fossil fuels." The report also comes as the US
Energy Department prepares "its own review of the safety of a closely
related project, by a start-up company called AltaRock Energy, in the
hills north of San Francisco," seen as "the Obama administration's
first major test of advanced geothermal energy."
The AP (12/11) reports, "Switzerland has ended [the]
pioneering geothermal project...three years after the deep drilling
into the ground caused a series of earthquakes." The head of Basel's
environmental and economic department, Christoph Brutschin, said
Thursday that "continuing the project in Basel is impossible because
it would trigger up to 30 earthquakes in the first phase of drilling
alone." Project designer Markus Haering "has been charged with
property damage and will have to stand trial in a Basel court next
week. He could be sentenced to up to five years in prison." His
company, Geopower, "has paid around 9 million Swiss francs ($9
million) in compensation for cracked walls and similar damage on
nearby houses and other buildings."
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