Interview – Advancing geothermal projects and technologies with Chevron and Baseload Capital
Chevron New Energies and Baseload Capital
Carlo Cariaga
2 Mar 2023
In this interview, Jesper Jolma from Baseload Capital and Kimilia Jones from Chevron New Energies discuss extended collaboration between Chevron and Baseload Capital through a new joint venture.
On December 2022, Baseload Capital and Chevron New Energies announced a joint venture to collaborate on driving geothermal opportunities. The joint venture aims to leverage the companies’ geothermal operational experience, combined with core competencies from the traditional oil and gas sector, especially around subsurface, wells, drilling and completions, to advance scalable novel geothermal technologies to tap into the earth’s core heat.
In this context, ThinkGeoEnergy conducted an interview with Jesper Jolma, Investment Manager at Baseload Capital and Kimilia Jones, Commercial Manager at Chevron New Energies to discuss why this partnership was formed and what we can expect to come out of it. The full interview is published below.
First of all, congratulations on the joint venture between your companies – each a major player in their own right. A partnership of this scale has the potential to really shake up the geothermal industry and accelerate its growth. What was the driving force that motivated the formation of this partnership?
Jesper Jolma: We don’t have time to wait. The world needs to accelerate the development and utilization geothermal energy. In order to drive a larger adaption and interest in the industry, we believe that geothermal projects need to be developed faster and at a lower cost. And in order to get there, we at Baseload believe that we need to work together with the oil and gas industry to leverage their vast experience in order to do so.
What are the opportunities in the geothermal industry that Chevron and Baseload Capital are uniquely equipped to capitalize on?
Kimilia Jones: Chevron has been an investor in Baseload Capital since 2021 and we have been looking at ways to strengthen that partnership to accelerate the development of both geothermal projects and new geothermal technologies. Baseload has had a rapid development within the geothermal industry in the last five years with the establishment of development companies and projects in four markets.
By doing so, Baseload has also become a strong platform that is able to develop projects with both traditional and emerging technologies. Chevron has strong know-how, resources, and partnerships within the energy industry that combined with Baseload’s agility, project pipeline, and team make for a strong foundation to accelerate both the development of geothermal energy projects and geothermal technologies.
Your press release mentioned the plans for a pilot project in Weepah Hills, Nevada. What makes this site attractive for your inaugural project? What is the planned scale for this pilot project?
Jesper Jolma: It is one of Baseload’s geothermal projects with extensive exploration history and data that due to its strong attributes enables the joint venture to work together on a concrete project from the start.
Utilizing waste heat from oil wells remains an unexplored frontier. What are the technical and other logistical challenges of extracting or co-producing heat from oil wells?
Jesper Jolma: Baseload and Chevron have, since July 2022, worked on a pilot project that utilizes waste heat from oil wells and are actively working to understand how it could be implemented in a larger scale. The challenges are often that several wells need to be combined to ensure enough available heat for power production. Also, the systems need to be easily integrated into the existing infrastructure and there are often long permitting lead times even for smaller installations – which increases the barrier of adoption.
What role will Chevron’s ample oil well portfolio play in the utilization of waste heat? Up to what scale can we expect heat generation from these oil wells?
Kimilia Jones: We still need to evaluate the results from the pilot project in more details to understand how it could be applied in a larger portfolio and thus how much of the waste heat that could be utilized.
If the results from the pilot project are positive, are there plans of expanding this collaboration in other parts of the U.S. or internationally?
Jesper Jolma and Kimilia Jones: We are constantly adjusting and adapting our plans and collaboration opportunities identifying various locations throughout the US and internationally.
