Development of conventional EGS begins with site selection and characterization. Once these are complete, wells are drilled into the hot rock, which is then hydraulically fractured to create a permeable geothermal reservoir. Heat is collected by circulating fluid (water or steam) through the reservoir via a system of injection and production wells (fig. 3).Oil and gas - an unconventional EGS resourceWith infrastructures already in place and the abundance of horizontally drilled and/or artificially stimulatedwells, hydrocarbon fields are prime candidates for the application of EGS technology. Of particular interest are those wells regarded as marginal or unproductive because they produce too much water. Geothermal waters that are coproduced with oil and gas are an expensive waste product that must be disposed of either in evaporation ponds (illegal in North Dakota), at a commercial disposal facility, or by re-injection into the subsurface. If sufficiently hot and available in sufficient quantity, however, these waters may be capable of generating cost-effective electricity (McKenna et al., 2005).The breakthrough came in September 2009 when the first successful generation of electricity using geothermal hot water from a producing oil well was accomplished at the DOE’s Rocky Mountain Oil Test Center (RMOTC) near Casper, WY. Using 185- 195°F (85-90°C) water from the Pennsylvanian-age Tensleep Formation, the plant produced between 150 and 250 gross kilowatts of electricity – sufficient to supply 12-13% of the onsite operational requirements** throughout most of a 12-month trial. At present this unit is still the only one of its kind but RMOTC expects at least two more to be up and running within the next few months.
With the potential to increase both productivity and longevity, this achievement could mark the beginning of an exciting new chapter for U.S. oil fields. In Texas alone, the DOE has identified around 8,000 wells similar to the one in Wyoming, and countrywide,
The ability to replicate natural hydrothermal systems has the potential to increase the United States’ geothermal electrical power output by orders of magnitude. The MIT study concluded that, even based on current technology, EGS could be producing more than 100 gigawatts of affordable electricity by 2050 - equivalent to roughly 10% of the U.S. present-day capacity.
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