Publications

Survey of Energy Resources 2007

Geothermal - New Developments - drilling for higher temperatures

Production wells in high-temperature fields are commonly 1.5-2.5 km deep and the production temperature 250-340°C. The energy output from individual wells is highly variable, depending on the flow rate and the enthalpy (heat content) of the fluid, but is commonly in the range 5-10 MWe and rarely over 15 MWe per well. It is well known from research on eroded high-temperature fields that much higher temperatures are found in the roots of the high-temperature systems. The international Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) is a long-term programme to improve the efficiency and economics of geothermal energy by harnessing deep unconventional geothermal resources (Fridleifsson, et al., 2007). Its aim is to produce electricity from natural supercritical hydrous fluids from drillable depths. Producing supercritical fluids will require drilling wells and sampling fluids and rocks to depths of 3.5 to 5 km, and at temperatures of 450-600°C. The central science team participants are from Iceland, the USA, Japan, New Zealand, Italy, Germany and France. Other scientists and geothermal experts involved are from Russia, Spain, Norway, the UK, Luxembourg, Greece, Turkey and Portugal. Some 40-50 research proposals and 100-150 scientists and their students are currently active in the project.

The current plan is to drill and test at least three 3.5-5 km deep boreholes in Iceland within the next few years (one in each of the Krafla, Hengill and Reykjanes high-temperature geothermal systems). Beneath these three developed drill fields temperatures should exceed 550-650°C, and the occurrence of frequent seismic activity below 5 km indicates that the rocks are brittle and therefore likely to be permeable. Modelling indicates that if the wellhead enthalpy is to exceed that of conventionally-produced geothermal steam, the reservoir temperature must be higher than 450°C. A deep well producing 0.67 m3/sec steam (~ 2 400 m3/h) from a reservoir with a temperature significantly above 450°C could yield enough high-enthalpy steam to generate 40-50 MW of electric power. This exceeds by an order of magnitude the power typically obtained from conventional geothermal wells (Fridleifsson, et al., 2007). Greater energy could thus be obtained from presently-exploited high-temperature geothermal fields from a smaller number of wells. Further information on the IDDP can be obtained on the webpage www.iddp.is.