Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS)

Operating Agent:
Geodynamics Limited

Australia

Task Leader:
Roy Baria

MIL-TECH UK Ltd.

62 Rosewood Way

West End

Woking

Surrey GU24 9PF

ENGLAND

Ph: +44-1483-486910 (UK); +33-4947 69987 (France)

E-mail: roybaria@onetel.com

Participants:

Australia, Canadian Geothermal Energy Association, the EC, Geodynamics, Geothermal Group- Spanish Renewable Energy Association, Germany, Green Rock Energy, Italy, Japan, ORMAT Technologies, Spain, Switzerland, USA.

Description:
Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) energy technologies have been conceived to extract the natural heat contained in high temperature, water poor rocks in the earth's crust. Heat is extracted from rock formations that are either too dry or too impermeable to transmit available water at useful rates. Necessary permeability can be created by hydraulic fracturing or stimulation, which involves the high pressure injection of a fluid into the reservoir to crack and enlarge pre existing openings.

The objective of the Enhanced Geothermal Systems Annex is to address new and improved technologies, which can be used to artificially stimulate a geothermal resource to enable commercial heat extraction.

The EGS Annex, originally named Hot Dry Rock (HDR), began in 1997, and will continue through 2009.

Annex III is divided into five Tasks.

Task A- Enhanced Geothermal Systems Economic Modelling (Task Leader: to be appointed)

Economic models are now used to raise capital on the market.   The aim of Task A is to produce standardised economic model that can be put together taking in to consideration the local incentives, local labour and other environmental requirements and conditions.  It is hoped this will retain the credibility of the technology and merit those organisations that are experienced and can deliver on time and cost.  A part of this task is the resource assessment so that the market can compare like with like quantification of resource.  A code has been prepared by AGEA and AGEG and the Code and Lexicon is available.

Task B- Application of Conventional Geothermal Technology to Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) (Task Leader: Joel Renner, Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, USA)

Subtask B is aimed is aimed to modify conventional geothermal development technology, such as horizontal drilling, fracture detecting and mapping, and pumping, for application to EGS energy development.

Task C- Data Acquisition and Processing (Task Leader: Thomas Mégel, Geowatt AG, Switzerland)

This Task involves the collection of information necessary for the realization of a commercial EGS energy producing plant at each stage of reservoir characterization, design and development, and of construction and operation.

Its aim will be to develop a search engine to access past data and reports, such as those on the US DOE Legacy database.

Task D- Reservoir Evaluation (Task Leader: Doone Wyborn, Geodynamics Limited, Australia)

The overall objective of Task D is to compile and make clear what kind of methods, techniques, and tools are effective for reservoir evaluation; and then establish the evaluation method that can be applied to develop a new EGS site. Creation of an economically viable reservoir is the sincel most important item in EGS technology.  It is proposed to have agreed procedures to test and evaluate the reservoir parameters so they can be compared.

Task E- Field Studies of EGS Reservoir Performance (Task Co-leaders: Peter Rose, EGI University Utah, USA, and Albert Genter, EEIG, EC, France)

The objective of this Task is to EGS research and development with an emphasis on reservoir management and reservoir enhancement technologies.  This topic covers a broad area and includes fracture and stress analysis, hydraulic and chemical stimulation, fluid flow modelling of hydraulic and chemical stimulation processes, tracer technologies and geophysical methods.

Highlights and Outputs of Annex III

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