Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technology
The Navy 1 geothermal power plant near Coso Hot Springs, California, is applying EGS technology
Enhanced geothermal systems (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. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) estimates that the application of EGS technology is capable of providing at least 100,000 MWe of electricity within 50 years.
DOE's mission is to develop enhanced geothermal systems technology that produces electricity from artificially created geothermal systems. The Geothermal Technologies Program is conducting the following major activities and research involving enhanced geothermal systems technology:
- Long-term flow testing of the enhanced reservoir at the Coso Hot Springs geothermal field on the U.S. Naval Weapons Air Station (China Lake, California)
- Preliminary flow testing of the reservoir enhanced at Desert Peak, Nevada
- Evaluation of well bore stimulation experiments
- Analyses of flow tests at The Geysers in California
- Chemical stimulation of a well at Glass Mountain.
Also as part of its mission, DOE sponsors workshops that bring together members of the geothermal industry to explore various aspects of EGS technologies. The activities and results of these workshops are made available as DOE's Workshop Documents. Listed below are several additional publications of relevance to EGS, as well as other locations of information on the technology.
Publications
The following documents are available as Adobe Acrobat PDFs. Download Adobe Reader.
An Evaluation of Enhanced Geothermal Systems Technology (PDF 7.2 MB), 2008
Results of an eight-month study by the Department of Energy and its support staff at the national laboratories.
Geothermal Risk Mitigation Strategies Report (PDF 789 KB), February 2008
An overview of general financial issues for renewable energy investments.
The Future of Geothermal Energy—Impact of Enhanced Geothermal Systems on the United States in the 21st Century (MIT 2006), an assessment by an MIT-led interdisciplinary panel.
Enhanced Geothermal Systems Summary (PDF 365 KB), August 2004
Related Links
American Rock Mechanics Association
ARMA serves as an advocate for firms and individuals who represent all aspects of rock mechanics and rock engineering. ARMA serves as an information repository on the development of rock mechanics and rock engineering.
Enhanced Geothermal Systems
Web site operated by the University of Utah's Energy and Geoscience Institute that also includes current and past information about the Coso EGS project.
GeoScience World
A comprehensive Internet resource for research and communications in the geosciences, built on a core database aggregation of peer-reviewed journals indexed, linked, and inter-operable with GeoRef.
Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)
Here you will find a searchable web site that includes information on papers, publications, and technical resources, some of which is relevant to EGS technology.