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Enhanced Geothermal Systems

Photo of a contact condenser

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.

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.