American company Fervo Energy says it has achieved a breakthrough in geothermal technology. Specifically, Fervo Energy carried out a 30-day test at its facility in northern Nevada (USA), drilled a deep well and pumped water into it - where the temperature reached 191 degrees Celsius. The water heated up from the heat. of the Earth, then Fervo Energy draws the water back to the surface, where a turbine converts that heat into electricity.
This Advanced Geothermal System (EGS) process can achieve a "flow rate of 63 liters per second at high temperatures, enabling the production of 3,5 megawatts of electricity," says Fervo Energy. One megawatt of electricity can power about 750 homes at a time. With 3,5 megawatts, that will increase to 2.625 households.
After achieving this groundbreaking success, Fervo Energy will soon connect its Project Red site to the US grid as soon as 2023.
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| Fervo Energy's comprehensive commercial pilot project, Project Red, is in northern Nevada. (Photo: Fervo Energy). |
“This is a very important milestone in the development of enhanced geothermal systems. This is the first application of advanced well drilling and stimulation techniques developed during the shale oil boom to geothermal, and has demonstrated that they can be used to create geothermal reservoirs. Artificial heat gives a high flow rate," Wilson Ricks, an experimenter at Princeton University (USA) told CNBC.
Following this success, Fervo Energy began construction on a 400 megawatt project that they expect to be operational by 2028 that will power approximately 300.000 homes.
“Fervo Energy’s successful commercial trial brings next-generation geothermal technology from the modeling field into the real world and sets us on a path to discovering geothermal’s full potential” – Jesse Jenkins, large-scale energy systems engineer, and professor at Princeton University (USA), said.
Currently, most geothermal energy sources are located near tectonic plate boundaries where magma approaches the Earth's surface, heating water trapped on nearby Earth's surface. In the US today, geothermal energy currently provides only 0,4% of electricity.
According to scientists, for a natural geothermal system to produce electricity, it needs a combination of heat, fluids, and rock permeability. In many areas, the rock has the required level of heat, but not enough permeability for liquids to flow through it.
An EGS artificially creates this permeability by drilling deep underground and injecting fluids to create cracks in the rock. That approach could dramatically increase the number of potential sites for a geothermal power plant.
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| Fervo Energy hits a major milestone in using oil drilling technology to harness geothermal energy. (Photo: Fervo Energy). |
Instead of relying on natural conditions, Fervo Energy is using drilling technology developed by the oil and gas industry with hydraulic fracturing to create reservoirs in hot rock deep underground.
“By applying drilling technology from the oil and gas industry, we have demonstrated that we can produce carbon-free energy sources 24/7 in new geographies around the world.” Tim Latimer, CEO of Fervo Energy, said.
The U.S. Department of Energy has also deployed what it calls an “Enhanced Geothermal Shot” – an effort to reduce the cost of enhanced geothermal energy by 90% to $45 per megawatt-hour by 2035. .
The US Department of Energy said it hopes to strengthen geothermal systems capable of providing clean energy to 65 million US homes.
Fervo Energy & Google: Towards a Zero Carbon Future
Google has led the way in its commitment to operate on carbon-free energy 24/7 by 2030. "Tackling climate change is humanity's next big step," said Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
One of the main advantages of geothermal power plants is that they are completely carbon-free – which is why Google signed a deal with Fervo Energy in 2021 that aims to operate all of its offices and data centers. Google data 24/7 with zero carbon energy by 2030.
To achieve that goal, Google had to buy a lot of renewable energy to support all of its energy-hungry computing processes. Unlike wind and solar energy, which are intermittent, geothermal energy is an "always on" carbon-free resource that can reduce our hourly dependence on fossil fuels, Michael Terrell, Senior Director of Energy and Climate at Google, said.
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| Geothermal technology simulation image. The heat in the Earth's interior could bring carbon-free electricity to humans. (Photo: Internet) |
“This is the first time an energy company has demonstrated that an Advanced Geothermal System (EGS) can operate on a commercial scale. It's a long way to achieve this breakthrough, as scientists have been trying to make EGS a reality since the 1970s.
Michael Terrell adds: “Achieving the goal of running 24/7 on carbon-free energy will require new, robust, clean energy sources to complement renewable energy sources as diverse as wind and solar. God. We partnered with Fervo Energy in 2021 because we see significant potential in their geothermal technology to unlock critical 24/7 carbon-free energy on a large scale, and we are delighted. Glad to see Fervo Energy achieve this important technological milestone.”
As part of the partnership, Google is developing artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems to improve Fervo Energy's efficiency, in return, Fervo Energy is adding clean energy to the grid electricity in Nevada, where Google is a big customer for clean energy.
According to Khoahoc.tv
