Progress in making hot dry rock geothermal energy a viable renewable energy resource for America in the 21. century
Conference
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OSTI ID:251344
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States). Earth and Environmental Sciences Div.
An enormous geothermal energy resource exists in the form of rock at depth that is hot but essentially dry. For more than two decades, work has been underway at the Los Alamos National Laboratory to develop and demonstrate the technology to transport the energy in hot dry rock (HDR) to the surface for practical use. During the 1980`s, the world`s largest, deepest and hottest HDR reservoir was created at the Fenton Hill HDR test facility in northern New Mexico. The reservoir is centered in rock at a temperature of about 460 F at a depth of about 11,400 ft. After mating the reservoir to a fully automated surface plant, heat was mined at Fenton Hill for a total period of almost a year in a series of flow tests conducted between 1992 and 1995. These tests addressed the major questions regarding the viability of long-term energy extraction from HDR. The steady-state flow tests at Fenton Hill showed that energy can be produced from an HDR reservoir on a routine basis and that there are no major technical obstacles to implementation of this heat mining technology. Additional brief special flow tests also demonstrated that the energy output from HDR systems can be rapidly increased in a controlled manner to meet sudden changes in power demand.
- Research Organization:
- Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-36
- OSTI ID:
- 251344
- Report Number(s):
- LA-UR--96-1189; CONF-960805--1; ON: DE96009243
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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