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Reno, the location for the GRC Annual Meeting is set beside the mighty Sierra Nevada. The snow-capped mountains fill the horizon to the west but gazing to the east the landscape opens out, to the wild American west of the Great Basin.

Once our convoy left bustling Reno and turned on to U.S. Route 50 the traffic disappeared and we were treated to a succession of wide-open “basin & range” vistas - up one side of a valley and then down into another along arrow-straight roads.

Our adventurers were led by Nick Hinz, Geologic Mapping Specialist at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology and Drew Siller, Post-Doctoral Fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Together they gave us a fascinating insight into the structural and geologic controls of geothermal circulation, from the crustal-scale to the geothermal field-scale in geothermal fields throughout the Great Basin.

GRC Fieldtrip to McGinness Hills Geothermal Plant

A geothermal success story in a unique setting

The wide open spaces along U.S. Route 50, the “Loneliest road in America”.

Ryan Libbey strides up a 3.6 meter right-lateral movement fault scarp along Fairview Peak formed during a 7.2 magnitude earthquake in 1954.

by ian crawford

Ben Delwiche, Senior Geologist, Ormat Nevada, Inc. welcomed us to the 72 MW McGinness Hills geothermal power plant.

McGinness Hills I (foreground) began producing 36 MW in 2012. A new geological model was developed and was successful in expanding the well field resulting in the addition of the 36 MW McGinness Hills II geothermal power plant in 2015.

All the attendees come together below an expansion section of a steam pipeline at McGinness Hills power plant.

GRC Annual MeetingGRC Fieldtrip

34 GRC Bulletin l www.geothermal.org

January/February 2016 35

I have just returned from the Geothermal Resources Council Meeting and Geothermal Energy Association Expo in Reno, Nevada. After the meeting in Reno, I was lucky enough to join the GRC Fieldtrip to the McGinness Hills Geothermal Power Plant, owned and operated by Ormat

Technologies Inc. Ben Delwiche from Ormat, Nick Hinz (UNR) and Drew Siler (LBNL) shared their time, and knowledge with us, and I came away with a much greater understanding of the Nevada Basin and Range geothermal systems. Fabulous communication skills guys!

Fieldtrips are such a valuable learning experience, and an important part of geothermal events. It is wonderful that owners and operators of geothermal plants allow access to organized parties of interested people, and I want to convey appreciation on behalf of the industry. In the long term this promotes communication, learning, and understanding amongst people in the geothermal community.

Juliet Newson, President,International Geothermal Association n

Ben Delwiche (center) gets help from Drew Siller (left) and Juliet Newson (right) as he explains the geological setting of the McGinness Hills geothermal field.

Drew Siller uses the side of a truck to display maps and diagrams at the Salt Wells geothermal field.

Nick Hinz points out the geology of the Salt Wells basin.

~~~~~~~For more photos from the GRC

Fieldtrip to the McGinness Hills Geothermal Plant got to the GRC Flicker website at: https://flic.kr/s/aHskkUB5Kb or scan the QR code.

The GRC would like to thank Nick Hinz and Drew Siller for their very capable leadership and to Ben Delwiche and Ormat Nevada, Inc. for the special access to the McGinness Hills geothermal power plant.

Juliet Newson, President, International Geothermal Association speaking at the 2014 GRC Annual Meeting