Heating a block of houses rather than a single one
Closed loop geothermal systems, with a heat pump superimposed, form a new and promising way of domestic heating systems. Hundreds of small rigs are actively drilling these loops across many…
Geothermal
Drilling twice as fast in basement rocks
John Gibb’s Aberdonian accent is noticeable even though he has spent many years in Houston. “I drilled many wells throughout my career”, he says, “including highly deviated development wells on…
Exploration drilling – for geothermal energy
Only a few days ago, a very interesting drilling campaign kicked off in the Netherlands, at a very prominent location close to the Ajax football stadium in Amsterdam. And while…
An order of magnitude more energy for drilling twice as deep
“What attracted me to geothermal is the fact that there are still a host of technical challenges to be addressed in order to unlock it as the ideal complement to…
The economics of geothermal pumped well power projects
Geothermal pumped well projects provide power to the grid at a contract price and terms negotiated with the power off-taker. This can vary significantly from country to country, but as…
Extended reach drilling for geothermal energy production
The energy transition is about pipe, lots of pipe. Where gas can be transported across the globe, geothermal energy, especially the low-temperature version of it that is mainly used for…
A geothermal gold rush
When it comes to producing geothermal energy, Munich is without a doubt the place to be in Germany. As the map here clearly shows, the city is dotted by wells…
Groundwater flow – a potential cost-saver for shallow geothermal loops
The energy transition is all about pipes. Where a single gas well was sufficient to deliver energy to power an entire city until recently, closed-loop geothermal boreholes are now increasingly…
Understanding geothermal energy
The energy contained in a geothermal fluid is defined by its enthalpy, generally given in kilojoules per kilogram (kJ/kg). For a liquid, the enthalpy is primarily determined by its temperature.…
A geothermal blowout in Japan
He often tweets about mud volcanoes, but today Mark Tingay retweeted a message from a Japanese user of Twitter who filmed a violent eruption of steam – possibly mixed with…
The basics of submersible pumps in geothermal projects
Pumped-well geothermal projects utilize “binary” power plant technology which consists of Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) heat exchangers. The geothermal fluid is pumped from the wells as a single phase liquid…
Coring the seal of a geothermal reservoir
In the little village of Monster, which ironically translates to “sample” in Dutch, operator HVC recently completed a new geothermal well. The well targeted the Lower Cretaceous Delft Sandstone, from…