Environmental Impact Mitigation Considerations in Geothermal Drilling: A Case Study of Menengai Geothermal Drilling Project

Abstract

Geothermal drilling is one of the most important activities in geothermal development. This development stage is preceded by surface exploration studies and production drilling. The key objective of geothermal drilling is to verify geoscientific surface exploration studies in order to prove existence of a geothermal resource. For that reason the evaluation of impacts arising at this stage of geothermal energy development is important in order to have an environmentally viable geothermal project. This paper focuses on the need for sound environmental management in geothermal drilling by analyzing the different environmental aspects and environmental legislation related to geothermal drilling. An environmental model of drilling geothermal wells which adheres to the concept of environmental sustainability as prescribed in the environmental management plan (EMP) is described. The study show that geothermal well drilling with key consideration of environmental sustainability concept not only as a tool for protection and conservation of the environment, helps to enhance acceptability of the geothermal project due to various environmental consideration that go with the drilling process.