Editorial: What is needed to foster technological innovation in geothermal?
Scientific Drilling showcases its drilling technology at its Applied Technology Center, Paso Robles, California (source: SDI)
Alexander Richter
27 May 2014
Incentivized prize competition, startup accelerators, private R&D or simply innovation through individual entrepreneurs, what do you think could be the key drivers for technological innovation in geothermal?
Now more than 5 years ago, I was asked to meet someone in connection with a geothermal event in San Francisco. Through introduction by Lawrence Molloy, I met with Michael Lindsay who was working with the X-Price.
The X Prize Foundation, is “a non-profit organization that designs and manages public competitions intended to encourage technological development that could benefit mankind.”, so the official definition.
The X Prize received a lot of attention in 2004, when it awarded the largest prize in history, the $10 million Ansari X Prize. The competition to win the prize was to be given to “the first private team to build and launch a spacecraft capable of carrying three people to 100 kilometers above the earth’s surface, twice within two weeks.”
The prize was won by aerospace designer Burt Rutan and financier Paul Allen, for SpaceShipOne and White Knight. The company is now known as Virgin Galactic and is soon to start a space flight program, flying paying civilians for a short flight into space.
Today the X Prize Foundation is active beyond space travel and has now established itself as “the global leader in the creation of incentivized prize competitions.” It also features several competitions in the different categories of Energy and the Environment, Exploration, Global Development, Learning and Life Sciences.
The idea to incentivize research and development through private investment with the opportunity to win a valued prize.
So to cut the story short, in 2009 Lawrence Molloy was working on trying to establish a prize for geothermal energy and there on a crucial element in the future of geothermal energy utilization, the development of downhole pumps. Particular in low enthalpy and future EGS development, downhole pumps are a critical components as they are needed to derive fluids from these depths. The idea was to create an incentive prize that would foster development of those pumps.
Well, the prize was not able to be established due to a lack of funds and pumps continue to be a technical concern for projects due to high temperatures and own power use. In Germany, pumps continue to provide some headaches for operators and developers.
While an incentive prize is one way to foster R&D, the question naturally is what else can be done to solve some of the technical and thereby also the economic challenges faced by geothermal projects.
To fast forward, there is now a startup accelerator program in Iceland that will see its big “Investor Day” tomorrow. There several startups will introduce their businesses and technical innovation. To my surprise there were several companies with geothermal elements and it will be exciting to follow up with them.
While air surveillance and exploration is probably not something new, one of the companies presenting is introducing a business around remotely controlled drones for exploration and related surveillance work. Called GeoDrone (Updated website), I am very excited to follow up with this company and also establish with others, how and if this could help in exploration for geothermal in remote areas of this world. (Facebook site)
Another company, we reported on GIRO Solutions earlier this year, has built a logging tool that monitors and logs temperature and pressure to 400°C/50Mpa, and plans to launch high temperature direction probe, for azimuth and inclination. The company successfully developed its solution and product and tested it in Iceland. Now it is worked on the commercialization of the product.
Both of these efforts have stunned me and I have been asking me, what other technological challenges are waiting in the geothermal world and could help the industry in development and to live up to expectations and potential.
Over the coming months I would like to follow up with companies that can be considered innovators for geothermal, so please let me know if you know companies, individuals or want to share your own stories. My email address is alex AT thinkgeoenergy.com
It would also be great to hear what you believe are things that could help foster innovation and where innovation is needed in the value chain of geothermal development.
Sources: XPrize.org, Space.Xprize.org, Startup Energy Reykjavik
