Title:

Preliminary Assessment of a Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy Reservoir Formed by Hydraulic Fracturing

Authors:

Hugh D. Murphy, Robert G. Lawton, Jefferson W. Tester, Robert M. Potter, Donald W. Brown, and R. Lee Aamodt

Geo Location:

Fenton Hill, New Mexico; Valles Caldera, New Mexico

Conference:

Stanford Geothermal Workshop

Year:

1976

Session:

Well Stimulation

Language:

English

File Size:

261KB

View File:

Abstract:

If a mass of relatively impermeable hot rock can be hydraulically fractured and if a heat extraction fluid can be circulated through the fracture and recovered, appreciable amounts of energy can be extracted from the rock. The Los Alamos Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy Project is designed to investigate and demonstrate this concept. A series of field experiments have been carried out at a site called Fenton Hill, located on the west flank of the Valles Caldera in the Jemez mountains of northern New Mexico.

In December, 1974, the first deep borehole, GT-2 was completed to a depth of 2.929 km (9609) ft) in granite, where the temperature was 197OC (386OF). A hydraulic fracture was then created near the bottom of this borehole, and a second borehole, EE-1, was drilled to complete the circulation loop, but it failed to intersect the fracture by about 8 m (26 f t ). Communication between the wellbores was established by initiating a fracture from EE-1. This paper discusses some aspects of what has been learned about this dual fracture system by subsequent experiments.


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