Western GeoPower Acquires Geothermal Lease At The Geysers
VANCOUVER , Canada, June 20, 2006: Western GeoPower Corp., a renewable energy development company, announces the acquisition of a geothermal lease for the Unit 15 Steam Field covering 421 acres within The Geysers Geothermal Field in Northern California. The lease grants Western GeoPower the right to re-develop the geothermal reservoir and build a new plant for electricity generation.
“The Unit 15 acquisition complements our Company’s strategy to increase shareholder value through the acquisition of advanced stage projects,” said Kenneth MacLeod, President and Chief Executive Officer of Western GeoPower. “We expect that Unit 15 can be developed more quickly than the implementation of an exploration project, by taking advantage of an immediately available resource database, production history, regional infrastructure, systems efficiencies and technical experience.”
Commercial geothermal power has been generated continuously at The Geysers Field since 1960, the present generation level being about 900 megawatts. The Unit 15 leasehold is situated in the southwestern region of The Geysers Field in Sonoma County and much of the leasehold lies within the presently known boundary of The Geysers Field. A commercial power plant of 62 megawatt (gross) capacity, known as P.G. & E. Unit 15, operated at the leasehold during 1979-1989.
It is now recognized that the Unit 15 plant was oversized for the available resource. For this reason, the wells supplying the plant experienced an unduly rapid decline in productivity, similar to the decline experienced throughout The Geysers Field at that time. The plant was shut down in 1989 and eventually dismantled, and the wells were plugged and abandoned.
Since the mid-1990s, the rate of decline in well productivity at The Geysers has eased substantially, and reservoir pressure has stabilized. In large part, this is due to increased injection into the reservoir. Reservoir pressure under the Unit 15 leasehold is believed to have recovered since the wells stopped production.
There is a demonstrated production history and a large database of resource information available from the Unit 15 leasehold, minimizing the resource-related risks of new development. The leasehold is expected to be capable of supporting a power plant of up to 30 megawatt capacity and individual wells are expected to be capable of supplying up to 8 megawatts each. Western GeoPower will retain GeothermEx, Inc. of Richmond, California, to provide an independent assessment of the resource.
The Unit 15 Steam Field acquisition enables Western GeoPower to establish an immediate presence in the U.S. market which continues to be the world leader in the generation of electric power from geothermal energy. The U.S. Geothermal Energy Association recorded on-line capacity of 2,828 megawatts in 2005 in the four ‘geothermal generating’ states – California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah – with approximately 2,000 megawatts of new plant capacity currently under development in nine states.
Corporate Overview
Western GeoPower Corp. is a renewable energy company dedicated to the development of geothermal energy projects for the delivery of clean , base-load electricity generation. The Company holds 100% interests in the South Meager Geothermal Project in British Columbia, Canada and the Unit 15 Steam Field located in The Geysers Geothermal Field in California, United States.
On behalf of Western GeoPower Corp.
“Kenneth MacLeod”
Kenneth MacLeod, President & CEO |
