EGS project creates three reservoirs from single well
Project site at Newberry, Oregon on October 20, 2012 (source: AltaRock)
Alexander Richter
14 Jan 2013
AltaRock Energy has created three different geothermal reservoirs from stimulation activities at one single well on project site at Newberry, Oregon with additional analysis and testing still outstanding.
Local news report on progress at the Newberry EGS project in Oregon by AltaRock Energy. The project has “taken an important technological step” by creating three reservoirs at the Newberry Crater in the state of Oregon.
In November the company did stimulation work through hydroshearing and is currently doing some more analysis and testing. These tests will show if the created reservoirs are good enough for commercial power production.
The U.S. Department of Energy has covered about 50% of the $44 million cost of the project and believes that the project could be the first case of multiple reservoirs having been created artificially from one single well in a new area.
This process is a key element in making EGS economically feasible given that drilling is so expensive and scientists believe that AltaRock is proving the concept of the stimulation of multiple distinct zones.
Hydroshearing is in general concept similar to hydraulic fracturing, but with less impact as it only needs to create small fractures and not the huge fractures needed in the process of extracting natural gas.
AltaRock will then have to drill one or two production wells to prove that it can derive enough steam to run “a commercial geothermal power plant.”
Source: Columbian
