Geysers By The Numbers

The Geysers Geothermal Field 2017 Statistics

The Geysers Locations

• 75 miles north of San Francisco, California
• 10 power plants in Sonoma County: Aidlin, Sonoma, McCabe, Ridgeline, Eagle Rock, Cobb Creek, Sulphur Springs, Lake View, Socrates and Grant
• 3 power plants in Lake County: Big Geysers, Quicksilver and Calistoga.

Calpine Geothermal Operations

• 29,000 acres (45 square miles) 

Geothermal Wells

• 322 steam wells
• 54 injection wells
• Deepest well: 12,900 feet, or over two miles
• Average well depth: 8,500 feet
• Total Calpine Geysers wells drilled to date: 591
• Today’s Average Grassroots Drilling Time: 85 days (75 days drilling + 10 rig up/down)
• First Exploratory Well: 1920
• First Modern Well: 1955
• 2017 average steam production per well: 36,036 pounds per hour
• Average Reservoir Steam Temperature: 374 degrees Fahrenheit
• Average Flowing Steam Pressure: 80.7 PSIG
• Most recent steam well drilled: Prati 31, January 2017
• Most recent injection well drilled: CMHC8, May 11, 2017

Facilities

• 13 operating geothermal plants
• Steam pipelines: 80 miles
• Injection water lines: 69 miles
• 21kV power lines: 70 miles
• Project roads: over 167 miles

Water Injection

• Two large-scale wastewater injection projects provide an average 15.09 million gallons daily (MGD)
  • Santa Rosa Geysers Recharge Project Average: 11.69 MGD
  • Calpine Southeast Geysers Effluent Pipeline Average: 3.4 MGD
  • Calpine + Northern California Power Agency: 7.00 MGD

Power Generation

• First commercial power plant: Unit 1, Startup - September 1960
• Most recent plant built: Aidlin, 1989
• 2017 Average Load: 647.7 net megawatts
• 2017 Generation: 5,673,647 net megawatt hours
• 2017 Average Unit Availability: 94%