Moving Enhanced Geothermal Systems Out of the Lab and into the Ground

Enhanced Geothermal Systems are the unconventional resources of the geothermal world. Conventional geothermal resources require exploration and carry dry hole risk. Like unconventional oil and gas resources, EGS allows us to go into rock with high temperatures but now natural circulating geothermal system.  If we can find a way to reliably and repeatably stimulate rock to create a geothermal reservoir where no natural reservoir exists, we can reduce the need for expensive exploration and avoid dry hole risk.  Right now, geothermal energy, while valued for its reliability and baseload energy production, can’t compete with natural gas on price and price is how utilities select energy resources. When we look at the performance of solar energy we can see that the accelerating deployment of PV has resulted in a rapid drop in the cost of solar energy.  Are there ways to add value to geothermal energy that can get more geothermal power on line so we can see the same kind of drop in the cost of EGS?

Speaker: Susan Petty, AltaRock Energy