Building on the Hawai‘i Play Fairway Project

Abstract

Still today very little is known about the extent of geothermal resources across the State of Hawai‘i. The DOE-funded Hawai‘i Play Fairway project took place from 2014-2020. It produced the State of Hawai‘i’s first quantitative geothermal resource probability model and first statewide geothermal resource assessment since the 1980s. The project's field work culminated with slim-hole drilling of the deepest well off of Hawaii Island on the caldera rim of Lāna‘i volcano. At 1-km depth, the temperature within the Lāna‘i well exceeds those of some geothermal exploratory wells drilled within Kilauea's East Rift Zone (Hawai‘i Island). The Play Fairway project incorporated the Lāna‘i drilling data into a final resource probability model and produced a road map for future exploration activities. After several years of advocacy with little to no funding, a $5M state-funded project aims to drill a deep slim hole in 2025. This paper will detail the final stages of the Hawai‘i Play Fairway project and provide a status update on the current project. It will also discuss success with recent outreach activities and current discussions around refining Hawai‘i's regulatory system to better facilitate characterization of the State's deep ( greater than 1 km) subsurface.