First commercial project producing geothermal power from oil and gas well
Oil wells in North Dakota (source: flickr/ Tim Evanson, creative commons)
Alexander Richter
12 May 2016
In exciting news, the U.S. Department of Energy reports on the success of the first commercial geothermal power production from an oil and gas well in the U.S.
In an announcement today, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) reports the launch of the first commercial enterprise to co-produce electricity from geothermal resources at an oil and gas well in the United States.
With support from DOE’s Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO), researchers at the University of North Dakota (UND) successfully generated geothermal power from hot water that flows naturally from petroleum wells in the Williston Sedimentary Basin in western North Dakota. This technology offsets the need for costly transmission construction and reduces energy costs at remote oil fields. The facility started generating electricity for the first time in late April.
UND’s process to co-produce electricity involves the use of hot ?uid—a by-product of oil, gas, and other material harvesting processes. While the quality of the resource depends on water volume and temperature, the technology has the potential to extend the economic life of oil and gas ?elds. UND’s technology features a special engine that can make steam from warm water pumped out of the ground with oil. The heat in the water flashes into steam and drives a turbine to create electricity.
Low-temperature geothermal resources between 150 and 300 degrees Fahrenheit (between 66 and 148 degrees Celsius) are widely available, having historically been used in direct-use applications, such as heating. Through new technology, power generation and electricity unit installations continue to increase in the United States due to their considerable potential for production of emission-free, renewable electricity. In fact, the coproduction of lower temperature geothermal electricity from oil wells holds the potential to produce more than 30 gigawatt hours of electricity nationwide. GTO continues to work with industry, academia, and national laboratories to develop and deploy new low-temperature and coproduction technologies that will help the geothermal community achieve this potential.
