The UK geothermal hot dry rock R&D programme
The UK hot dry rock research and development programme is funded by the Department of Energy and aims to demonstrate the feasibility of commercial exploitation of HDR in the UK. The philosophy of the UK programme has been to proceed to a full-scale prototype HDR power station via a number of stages: Phase 1--Experiments at shallow depth (300 m) to assess the feasibility of enhancing the permeability of the rock. Phase 2--Studies at intermediate depth (2500 m) to determine the feasibility of creating a viable HDR subsurface heat exchanger. Phase 3--Establishment of an HDR prototype at commercial depth. The programme has run over a 15 year period, and has been formally reviewed at stages throughout its progress. The 1987 review towards the end of Phase 2 identified a number of technical objectives for continuing research and proposed that the initial design stage of the deep HDR prototype should start. Phase 3A is now complete. It addressed: the feasibility of creating an underground HDR heat exchanger suitable for commercial operation; techniques for improving hydraulic performance and correcting short circuits in HDR systems; modeling of the performance, resource size and economic aspects of HDR systems. The work has been conducted by a number of contractors, including Cambome School of Mines, Sunderland and Sheffield City Polytechnics and RTZ Consultants Limited. This paper focuses upon the experimental work at Rosemanowes in Cornwall and the recently completed conceptual design of a prototype HDR power station. The economics of HDR-generated electricity are also discussed and the conclusions of a 1990 program review are presented. Details of the HDR program to 1994, as announced by the UK Department of Energy in February 1991, are included.
- Research Organization:
- Energy Technology Support Unit, Harwell, Oxfordshire, UK
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- OSTI ID:
- 888638
- Report Number(s):
- SGP-TR-141-2; TRN: US200619%%86
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: Seventeenth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering: Proceedings, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, January 29-31, 1992
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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