๐๐ฎ๐ป ๐๐ต๐ถ๐ ๐ฐ๐ผ๐บ๐ฝ๐ฎ๐ป๐ ๐๐๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ฒ๐๐๐ณ๐๐น๐น๐ ๐ด๐ฒ๐ป๐ฒ๐ฟ๐ฎ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐น๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ป๐ถ๐ฐ-๐ฝ๐ผ๐๐ฒ๐ฟ?
Aโ๏ธ337-wordโ๏ธ2-minuteโ๏ธread
I make it a point to monitor geothermal advances because I believe geothermal can become a significant contributor to the clean energy mix.
โถ Advanced closed-loop systems from companies such as Fervo and Eavor are making steady progress toward commercialization.
โถ Sage Geosystemsโ pressure geothermal approach - which combines baseload power with long-duration storage - is developing a 3 MW energy storage facility in Texas.
โถ And XGS Energy has successfully run its closed loop system at commercial-scale for more than 3,000 hours.
But all these advances may pale in comparison with the eruption that Mazama Energy has planned.
The companyโs goal is to tap into rock heated above 750ยฐF. According to its CEO, at that temperature water turns โsupercritical.โ If successful, a single well could produce 5 to 10x more energy than a traditional geothermal project while using 75% less water.
Mazama hasnโt quite achieved the 750ยฐF threshold, but at 629ยฐF, it has built the worldโs hottest geothermal system in Oregon. They hope to achieve the 750ยฐF mark next year.
Backed by notable investors including Khosla Ventures and the Gates Foundation, the company believes it can deliver electricity at terawatt scale at less than 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. That would be a quantum leap forward for geothermal.
The challenge of course it to prevent the equipment from failing. Mazama claims to have a few engineering tricks up its sleeve including pumping liquid carbon dioxide to cool the equipment. ย It also boasts proprietary technology it calls Thermal Latticeโข stimulation which it claims can enable producing geothermal energy at previously unavailable sites.
๐ง๐ต๐ฒ ๐ป๐ฒ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฒ๐ฝ:
Mazama plans to drill a 15 MW horizontal well pilot at its Newberry Oregon site and scale that project to 200 MW.
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Image: Mazama operations in Newberry, Oregon
I have no idea whether Mazama will be successful, but I will be monitoring its progress.
Geothermal at the scale the company is planning would be a far superior approach to generating clean energy than solar and wind.
ย #geothermal #geothermalenergy #volcanos #cleanenergy #zeroemissions