Retrofit of a new direct contact condenser at The Geysers
GTP supports R&D activities and partnerships in developing and
advancing EGS technologies. EGS are engineered reservoirs created to
produce energy from geothermal resources that are otherwise not
economical due to lack of water and/or permeability. EGS technology has
the potential for accessing the Earth's vast resources of heat located
at depth to help meet the energy needs of the United States. DOE
estimates that the application of EGS technology is capable of providing
at least 100,000 MW of electricity within 50 years.
GTP is committed to achieving EGS technology readiness by 2015, and
while the R&D effort reflects the long-term goal of cost competitive
power production, demonstrating EGS technology applications in the
near-term is also important. GTP is facilitating the research and
technology developments needed to permit EGS to become a continuous
base-load power source in the United States.
To learn more about EGS, watch our
EGS animation or read
The Basics of Enhanced Geothermal Systems
.
Key R&D Activities
Current work is active in, or planned for the following areas:
Site Selection
Site selection is focused on:
- Prioritization of sites for future EGS development and estimating the size of the economic EGS resource.
- Low-risk, economical EGS site selection and characterization capabilities.
- Drilling, casing, and preparing the wells for simulation and production.
Site Characterization
Identification of preexisting subsurface formation characteristics in
order to establish a baseline from which to measure the effectiveness
of reservoir creation efforts.
Reservoir Creation
Stimulation of the target formation by fracturing to create the subsurface heat exchanger component of the EGS system.
Reservoir Validation
Improved geophysical methods for downhole detection of fractures and water flow for validation of created EGS reservoirs
Interwell Connectivity
Accurate detection of reservoir characteristics including fluid pathways, dynamics, residence time, etc.
Reservoir Scale Up
Optimization of use of wells and sidetracks. to economically exploit EGS resources
Reservoir Sustainability
Management of EGS reservoirs for maintenance of reservoir lifetime and productivity.
