Energy Consumption for Geothermal Wells

Abstract

Drilling and completing geothermal wells is connected with a high consumption of energy depending on size and depth of the individual borehole. In the hydrocarbon industry, energy consumption represents a rather negligible factor when drilling wells referring to the energy balance of the resource exploitation. This is mainly due to the much higher specific energy density of the exploited resource.
A sensitivity study was performed to determine the magnitude of the energy input and the parameters of influence. Datasets from the oil and gas- and the geothermal industry were used for the study. New geometry-, formation- and process specific energy consumption key figures were derived. Based on the findings, site-specific saving and optimization potentials can be analysed and retrieved. The results can be readily integrated into practical well planning and design work. Especially, for deep wells exploiting low-enthalpy reservoirs the latter is mandatory in order to increase the overall efficiency of the geothermal energy recovery system.