Status and prospects for hot dry rock (HDR) in the United States

Conference · Wed Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1992

OSTI ID:7112401

Brown, D; Duchane, D

The vast majority of accessible geothermal energy exists in the form of heat stored in dry rock at depth. For nearly the last two decades, the Los Alamos National Laboratory has been engaged in a program to develop the technology to mine the thermal energy in this hot dry rock (HDR). The world's first heat mine was developed and operated at Fenton Hill, N.M. in the 1970's by using drilling and hydraulic fracturing techniques to create an artificial reservoir in hot rock and subsequently circulating water through this reservoir to mine the heat from the rock. Over the last ten years, a much larger, deeper, and hotter heat mine has been constructed at Fenton Hill and a permanent energy extraction plant has been built on the surface. A long-term testing program has recently begun to evaluate the potential for sustained energy extraction from the large Fenton Hill heat mine. This paper summarizes the history of HDR research and development at Los Alamos, reports the initial results of the long-term testing program at Fenton Hill, and discusses the possible future course of HDR technology.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab., NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 7112401
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-92-2189; CONF-921083--6; ON: DE92018876
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
150100* -- Geothermal Energy-- Resources & Availability
150301 -- Geothermal Exploration & Exploration Technology-- Geophysical Techniques & Surveys
ENERGY
ENERGY SOURCES
EVALUATION
FLUID INJECTION
FRACTURING
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES
GEOTHERMAL SYSTEMS
Geothermal Legacy
HEAT FLOW
HOT-DRY-ROCK SYSTEMS
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
RENEWABLE ENERGY SOURCES
RESOURCES