Recent interview with Lou Capuano, CEO of ThermaSource

Alexander Richter 16 Haz 2009

Energy Digital recently interviewed Lou Capuano, the CEO of ThermaSource, the leading geothermal drilling company in the U.S. In the interview, Lou gives a bit of insight into the foundation of ThermaSource and his insight into the developments of geothermal development in the U.S.

He refers to the recent stimulus funding in the country, which will provide “dramatic chances for expanding a business that already has taken off”, sou Lou Capuano.

“The company purchased its first rigs in 2005, when the price of oil skyrocketed and rigs became scarce. Capuano and his partners, majority owners U.S. Renewables Group, Rustic Canyon Partners, and Riverstone Holdings, LLC, . ThermaSource now operates eight fully staffed rigs and provides labor to another two. Employees are offered a flexible schedule of seven days on and seven days off the job, meaning they can live anywhere.”

In 2007, the company was vertically integrated and Capuano became CEO and President of ThermaSource, LLC, a holding company for ThermaSource, Inc., ThermaSource Cementing, Inc., EGS, Inc., Chem Tech Services, LLC, and Tecton Geologic, LLC. The subsidiaries enable ThermaSource to present a complete package with services such as 24-hour on-site monitoring, solutions for challenging drilling environments, mud logging, geothermal exploration, drill rig operations and geothermal economics.

“We want to be more than a rig and personnel,” Capuano says. “We want to be the engineering group that helps you be where you want to be.”

“While monitoring the price of oil, ThermaSource is also eyeing new markets on the Pacific Rim and the Pacific Ring of Fire where indigenous geothermal fields are in rich supply whereas oil and gas generally are not. The challenge is, as always, to find a source where the three conditions for geothermal power production line up: hot rock, water saturation, and permeability to allow water to move throughout the field.”

Referring to Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), he talks about that “It’ll take trial and error, it’ll take some demonstration projects,” and that “The only way to prove it is to try. I think in the next five years, we’ll see twice to three times as many drilling rigs working in the geothermal industry, trying to develop conventional geothermal and lots of companies working on enhanced geothermal. We’re ready.”

Lou Capuano is a very impressive “evangelist” for the industry and has been invaluable to the promotion efforts and the development of the geothermal industry not only in the U.S..

Source: EnergyDigital