Typical Day
Giovanni Thermalli wakes up at 7:00AM and changes into his uniform of a polo shirt and dark jeans. He puts a poppy seed bagel in the toaster and sets to work on coffee. Fifteen minutes later, Geo, as his friends call him, is downing the last dregs of his coffee, scooping up the last of the cream cheese on the plate, and putting both dishes in the dishwasher. By 8:00AM he's at the office. He works for CalCorp, an energy company in California—"Lighting the Future," as their motto claims.
He's not a big fan of CalCorp itself. It's one of the larger companies he's worked for, and like many large companies, it's quite the bureaucratic machine. Engineers are all about machines, though, so it's hard to complain when one gets a little overly-complex. Still, Geo likes his co-workers, especially his engineering team.
"Good morning," he says cheerily to his deskmate, Sai Smick. Sai recently got married (don't worry, she's not changing her name). Geo offers his congratulations, chats with her briefly, and then heads to his desk. There, he plans out his day and schedules a couple meetings that need to happen during the week.
Around 9:00AM he starts working on a large project due for completion early next year. The project is an assessment of a greenfield enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) project. "Greenfield" refers to a patch of land that's never been drilled (and is therefore "green").
The company needs to coordinate a number of test drillings, as well as provide a financial risk assessment for the project. They need to know what's down there and whether they'll move forward with the plans for a flash steam plant. Geo suspects they'll instead need to switch to a binary, closed-loop system.
At 10:00AM, Geo gets a phone call from a contractor requesting that he go visit a particular CalCorp site.
"We just need a second recommendation on the cooling tower," he says. The opinions of engineers are like those of doctors: if you get one you don't like, ask for another. And if you still don't like it, maybe ask for one more just to be sure.
"Anything seem to be wrong with it?"
"No, nothing in particular. We just have a well that we'd like to use instead of the condensing towers. Thought maybe you could give us an opinion."
"No problem, happy to help." Geo promises to come over that day, scheduling a visit for that afternoon.
At 11:00AM, Geo meets with a pair of government officials "concerned," as they put it, about the proximity of a proposed CalCorp geothermal plant to their town. They seem particularly concerned about the associated risk of earthquakes. Geo admits that there's some slight risk—he's never been one to lie.
"But your town isn't on a fault line," he says, "which makes it highly unlikely that the area would experience any abnormal seismic activity."
The government officials eventually leave, not quite convinced but seemingly less concerned for their safety. Geo gets it. Power plants are scary for the non-engineering public, and especially scary for elected government officials voted into office by said public. Still, Geo has yet to oversee a project linked to any seismic activity.
At 1:00PM, Geo breaks for lunch with the rest of his engineering staff. He brings a bag lunch from home: pasta salad with tuna, olives and corn; a yellow nectarine; and a bag of chips. By 2:00PM he's on the road to do the requested assessment of the contractor's cooling towers.
He arrives at the site, which smells sort of like a cross between a carton of year-old eggs and toe fungus. Geothermal plants invariably feature the intoxicating aroma of hydrogen sulfide, and the first ten minutes of the inspection are spent making jokes about passing gas and standing down-wind. Engineers…are not generally known for their comedic abilities.
The inspection lasts a very brief thirty minutes and Geo promises to send the client a full, detailed report on his findings. They shake hands, and within minutes Geo is back in his truck, on his way to the office. As always when he leaves a site, he's extremely grateful for the pine tree air freshener hanging from his rear-view mirror.
By 4:00PM, with just a little time left in the office for the day, he meets with his team of interns. There are five of them, all eager to break into the geothermal industry. CalCorp is growing fast, with plants opening up and down the California coastline, so they need the extra hands. And if they prove useful enough, they just might find permanent jobs at the company.
At 4:30PM, Geo says goodbye to his interns, goodbye to his deskmate, Sai, and heads home. He plays on a recreational softball team and needs to get home quickly to change into his uniform, grab a banana, fill up his water bottle, and drive to the park.