A new process to access super-hot geothermal resources that might expand the use of domestic geothermal energy is being funded by the federal agency tasked with supporting research and development within that sector in order to expand the geothermal industry.
The Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office (GTO) has allocated funds in support of a super-hot rock (SHR) enhanced geothermal system (EGS) pilot project at Newberry Volcano in Oregon being conducted by Mazama Energy Inc.
Mazama Energy is a geothermal operator and development company focused on producing technologies and methods for extracting heat from SHR to generate utility-scale, carbon-free, base-load energy.
GTO says its first-round EGS funding focused on demonstrations projects targeting SHR resources and selected projects were required to improve understanding of super-hot environments, as well as fostering the creation of EGS reservoirs within those environments.
Furthermore, GTO says by expanding next-generation geothermal technologies and the ability to create human made geothermal reservoirs, projects like Mazama’s can make secure, affordable geothermal energy available to more Americans, even in places where it has never before been done.
Specifically, Mazama’s EGS technology has the potential to provide several times the power density (the amount of power per unit volume) than that of lower-temperature rock, which is why GTO is funding the project.
If successful, Mazama’s project can use the energy from geothermal to provide much more firm, flexible power to the U.S. grid and could potentially reduce costs of geothermal electricity, according to GTO.
Drilling by Mazama at Newberry Volcano commenced in October 2024 and has reached depths of 8,500 feet and may go to 10,000 feet, according to a stakeholder knowledgeable about this project. Furthermore, because Newberry is a volcanic caldera, it is “the perfect place to test out these new technologies for super hot rock,” the stakeholder said.
Which is an action Mazama has engaged in, with the testing of its “modular unconventional super-hot energy” (MUSE) technology that seeks to extract usable heat of up to 375 degrees Celsius from SHR areas, GTO says. When compared to conventional EGS that operate at around 200 degrees Celsius, SHR EGS can yield five to ten times more power, Mazama says.
In addition, because the MUSE system requires 80 percent fewer wells and 75 percent less water than current engineered geothermal system approaches, those technologies can help drive down the costs of electricity to less than $50 per megawatt-hour (MWh), which is the unit of energy measurement representing the usage of 1,000 kilowatts of electricity over a period of one hour.
However, to date those wanting to use EGS to access SHR have not been successful, according to the stakeholder. “Nobody today, on a global basis, has been successful in super-hot rock, even though certain places have come close,” said the stakeholder, who added, Icelanders have been close, but “have not achieved it yet.”
However, while using use EGS to access SHR might not have been achieved yet, Alain Bonneville, Mazama’s chief geoscientist who is a leader on the Newberry project, told The Driller researchers are “still analyzing the results of the January stimulation work at Newberry,”
The drilling is scheduled to continue through February 2025.
