Geothermal development began with hydrothermal systems and has grown to incorporate enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) and closed-loop systems deemed the next generation of geothermal development which will vastly expand the geothermal industry. The Pathways to Commercial Liftoff: Next-Generation Geothermal Power Report by the Department of Energy (DOE) outlines what it will take for next-generation geothermal projects to get started in the next six years outlining key indicators of progress.
Before the US can scale to reach the DOE goal of reaching 90 GigaWatts of geothermal power by 2050, we must first achieve liftoff. Achieving liftoff will require at least 2 GigaWatts of power and at least $20 billion of investment by 2030 across the United States. The report lists a handful of challenges and key indicators of success that may be encountered as next-generation geothermal projects build and scale.
One challenge in particular that MicroThermal Energy can help mitigate or avoid is felt induced seismicity. By monitoring, managing, and avoiding felt induced seismicity connected to EGS. The DOE requires induced seismicity monitoring on all geothermal projects they fund and advises all next-generation geothermal projects to employ and adhere to their established protocols. MicroSeismic Inc.’s MicroThermal Energy service can help demonstrate that next-generation geothermal operators can minimize their risk of felt-induced seismic events and maintain wellbore integrity.
Additionally, MicroSeismic Inc.’s MicroThermal Energy service can help provide high-quality data for two of the key indicators of success, resource characterization, and stimulation data. MicroThermal Energy can characterize a geothermal reservoir by correctly identifying fracture patterns and stress states during stimulation and throughout the project’s lifetime to validate pilot models and detail the track record of next-generation geothermal developments. MicroSeismic Inc.’s proven high-quality data sets we can help facilitate further developments.
MicroSeismic’s proven surface array approach is easily scalable, from induced seismicity monitoring to reservoir characterization, harnessing the information that comes with microseismic events to facilitate next-generation geothermal.