Utah scientists find massive geothermal hotspot in west desert

Scientists at the Utah Geological Survey say they have found a massive new source of potential geothermal power in Utah’s west desert.

It is a different type of resource, they say, much deeper than the geothermal industry now uses. But it still should be exploitable.

Over the past two years, crews drilled nine wells in Utah’s Black Rock Desert basin south of Delta to test out a theory that water at high temperatures might exist deep beneath the surface that would be hot enough to be turned into steam, which could then be used to generate electricity.

They hit pay dirt.