Curaçao ambition for EGS project seen as little realistic
Curaçao - Handelskade from Ship (Source: Flickr, CC, By: Roger)
Francisco Rojas
15 Jan 2015
Dr. John Wright, a retired consultant geologist gives his opinion on the feasibility of a geothermal project being developed in the Caribbean island.
As geothermal development in the Caribbean gathers momentum, there have been some rumours late last year that Curaçao was looking into possibly developing geothermal energy.
In a recent local online newspaper featured an opinion column by Dr. John Wright, a retired consultant geologist with over 30 years’ experience in natural resource exploration regarding the feasibility of said project.
Dr. Wright enumerates a series of different cases for geothermal in other Caribbean nations and concludes that geothermal, while technically possible, would be quite expensive and difficult to develop due to the lack of favourability for said energy.
“The fact that on Curacao it is proposed to drill to 7,000m implies a geothermal gradient of 30-35oC/km, to expect a 200-250oC fluid or steam out of the borehole from this depth. While actual scientifically measured geothermal data are not available for Curacao, they are for three relatively near-by petroleum wells drilled in 1989-90 adjacent to Aruba. These data, on the contrary, indicate a much lower average geothermal gradient of about 20oC/km.”
It is great to see that geothermal is a popular idea and more nations want to develop it, but some areas are much more feasible than others for geothermal development, considering the actual technology.
Source: Curaçao Chronicle
