Reno Industrial Park geothermal district heating system

Ten miles south of Reno, on U.S. 395 near the junction of the road to historic Virginia City, is Steamboat Hot Springs, a popular stop for travelers since the mid-1800s. Legend has it that Mark Twain named the geothermal area because it looked and sounded like a chugging Mississippi River paddle-wheeler. It is said when he first saw the steam rising from the ground he exclaimed, {open_quotes}Behold! A Steamboat in the desert.{close_quotes} Over the years, the area has been used for its relaxing and curative qualities by Indians, settlers, and geothermal experts. Since the mid-1980s five geothermal power plants have been built at Steamboat Springs and in December 1996 it was announced that the proposed largest geothermal district heating system in the U.S. would supply an industrial park in the area. The active geothermal area is located within the north-south trending graben like trough between the Carson and Virginia Ranges at the southern end of Truckee Meadows. Hot springs and other geothermal features occur over an area of about one square mile. The mid-basin location is controlled by faulting more or less parallel to the major mountain-front faults. It is believed that the heat source for the system is amore » cooling magmatic body at depth. The Steamboat geothermal area consists of a deep, high-temperature (215{degrees}C to 240{degrees} C) geothermal system, a shallower, moderate-temperature (160{degrees}C to 18{degrees} C) system, and a number of shallow low-temperature (30{degrees}C to 80{degrees}C) subsystems. The higher temperature systems are used for electric-power generation. It is proposed that the exit fluids from the electric power plants be used for the geothermal district heating system.« less