Evaluating System and Indicators Analysis of EGS Geothermal Project in Eastern China

Abstract

In the context of geothermal energy, hot dry rock（HDR）with a temperature above 180℃ is natural heated crustal rock with little fluid that can provide commercially useful thermal energy. Many methods can be suggested for producing the required flow passage and heat-transfer area through hydraulic fracturing, enhanced or engineering geothermal system (EGS) technology which is the chosen one for the initial investigation in HDR program. During exploration of HDR geothermal resources by EGS technology, site screening or evaluating is one of the most crucial steps leading to ultimate success. Based on the learning of EGS geothermal projects at home and abroad，some key indicators are established for site screening in HDR program. Furthermore, with the overall analysis of several typical indicator systems from domestic organizations such as Chinese Academy of Science，SINOPEC and so on，considering deep geothermal energy exploitation of EGS project, we put forward an evaluating system for site screening in eastern China for EGS demonstration project, which is divided into three classes including four types with fourteen indicators in all. The suitable values are given to the fourteen indicators according to the standards that are good, medium and bad. With the consideration of the relationship between different indicators, we compute the weight factors for the fourteen indicators. This evaluating system has the reasonable assignment of weight factor and can be used to evaluate the HDR projects in eastern China for ENN Group.