Recent Developments in the Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy Program
- Key words
- Hot Dry Rock; Costs; Economics; Fenton Hill; Case Histories; Logging; Tracer; General
- Location
- Fenton Hill, New Mexico; Valles Caldera, New Mexico
- Conference
- Geothermal Resources Council Transactions
- Year
- 1985
- Session
- HDR/EGS; Hydraulic fracturing; Drilling; Tracer testing
- Language
- English
Abstract
In recent years, most of the Hot Dry Rock Programs effort has been focused on the extraction technology development effort at the Fenton Hill test site. The pair of approximately 4000 m wells for the Phase II Engineering System of the Fenton Hill Project have been completed. During the past two years, hydraulic fracture operations have been carried out to develop the geothermal reservoir. Impressive advances have been made in fracture identification techniques and instrumentation. To develop a satisfactory interwellbore flow connection the next step is to redrill the lower section of one of the wells into the fractured region. Chemically reactive tracer techniques are being developed to determine the effective size of the reservoir area. A new estimate has been made of the U.S. hot dry rock resource, based upon the latest geothermal gradient data. An updated economic study is in progress by EPRI.
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