Geothermal Play Fairway Analysis for Low-Temperature Resources in the Denver Basin

Dataset · Sat Sep 30 04:00:00 EDT 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.15121/2448432· OSTI ID:2448432

Davalos-Elizondo, Estefanny ^[1]; Taverna, Nicole; Gold, Abra; Menon, Karthik; Trainor-Guitton, Whitney

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1. National Renewable Energy Laboratory

This dataset is part of an effort to highlight the advantages of incorporating low-temperature (< 150 C) geothermal resource evaluation into the implementation of combined heat and power (CHP), and geothermal direct use (GDU) technologies (e.g., space heating and/or cooling). For this Denver Basin example, resource favorability maps were created to identify potentially favorable areas for further geothermal exploration and are provided here. Favorability was based on three types of data: (1) geologic, (2) economic, and (3) risk. This raw data is also provided below. Geologic data include bottom-hole temperatures (BHT) from oil and gas wells, water co-production volumes from oil and gas wells, well groundwater levels, hot spring locations, temperatures, and chemistries, faults, and earthquakes. Economic feasibility data include population, thermal energy demand, infrastructure, and roads. Risk data (which includes data on excluded areas) include flood plains, protected lands (e.g. wildlife conservation areas, national parks). The included report describes this project in detail, covering workflows, relevant datasets, Python code, and both common and composite maps used to create low-temperature geothermal resource favorability maps for the Denver Basin, which extends across Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming. The figures in this report include: maps of the original datasets; maps of transformed data and derived parameters (such as the geothermal gradient or thermal conductivity); results of uncertainty analyses; results of data completeness (using the GeoRePORT tool); examples of the data combination and processing (using the geoPFA Python library, which is introduced in the attached report); favorability maps for each criteria; and a final combined favorability map. This project is designed to facilitate future deployment of CHP and GDU by providing data, tools, and a workflow applicable to low-temperature geothermal resources in sedimentary basins.

• Research Organization: DOE Geothermal Data Repository; National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Geothermal Technologies Program (EE-4G)
• Contributing Organization: National Renewable Energy Laboratory
• OSTI ID: 2448432
• Report Number(s): 1671
• Availability: [e-mail]
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
GeoRePORT
PFA
Play Fairway Analysis
Python
colorado
denver basin
earthquakes
economic data
economic feasibility
energy
exploration
faults
favorability
geoPFA
geochemistry
geologic data
geology
geospatial
geothermal
groundwater levels
hot spring locations
low-temperature
resource favoribility maps
risk data
sedimentary basin
thermal
water co-production
workflow