Disturbing a dormant volcano might seem ill-advised, but that’s what a company will do this month in a bid to exploit an untapped source of clean energy.

Engineers working for Seattle-based AltaRock Energy and the firm’s partners have been given the green light by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to start injecting water into a series of connected cracks 3 kilometres down at Oregon’s Newberry volcano (pictured, right). Their goal is to heat the water, before returning it to the surface as steam to drive turbines and generate electricity.