Geothermal Battery Workshop Follow-up - slides, presenter info, and paper

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May 19, 2020

Large-scale Subsurface Seasonal Solar Heat Storage for Future Value virtual workshop

The workshop saw over 210 participants. A big thank you to the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah for hosting and organizing! We thank everyone for joining and hope it was valuable!

Click below for presenter contact info, slides and their comments:

Concept Overview………………………..Sidney Green….comments John McLennan..comments

Heat and Fluid Flow Calculations …..……..…. Palash Panja & John McLennan…slides..comments

Operational Considerations and Well Layouts ……..…......…. John McLennan….slides

Challenges of Sedimentary Basins …………………………..........…..…. Richard Allis.…slides

Site Potential from an Oil & Gas Industry Perspective ….…. Richard Newhart….slides..comments

Geochemical Considerations …………………………………….....….……. Joe Moore….slides…comments

Surface Facilities …………………………………….…………....………….…...…. Kevin Kitz.…slides

Facilitated Discussion and Summary ………………………....…..…. Sidney Green ….comments

Renewable Energy, published paper available via ScienceDirect (here) or preprint below the abstract:

Published paper:

GEOTHERMAL BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE

Sidney Green^{1 ✉️}, John Mclennan², Palash Panja², Kevin Kitz³, Rick Allis⁴ and Joseph Moore⁵

¹ Enhanced Production, Inc., Research Professor University of Utah
² Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Utah, the Energy & Geoscience Institute – University of Utah
³ KitzWorks, LLC
⁴ Consultant, Retired Director Utah Geological Survey
⁵ Civil & Environmental Engineering, University of Utah, DOE-GTO FORGE Project
✉️ Corresponding author (S. Green)

A B S T R A C T

The Geothermal Battery Energy Storage (“GB”) concept has been proposed as a large-scale renewable energy storage method. This is particularly important as solar and wind power are being introduced into electric grids, and economical utility-scale storage has not yet become available to handle the variable nature of solar and wind.

The Geothermal Battery Energy Storage concept uses solar radiance to heat water on the surface. The heated water is then injected deep into the earth. This hot water creates a high temperature geothermal reservoir acceptable for conventional geothermal electricity production, or for direct heat applications. Storing hot water underground is not a new idea, the unique feature of the GB is its application to sedimentary basins with formations that are water saturated and exhibit high porosity and high permeability. For certain reservoirs like these, calculations suggest that nearly one hundred percent of the stored heat can practically be recovered, and long-term, even seasonal storage is possible.

Several publications have been presented by the authors on the GB that parametrically identified desirable reservoir characteristics. This is a review of those calculations and the inferred conclusions for a viable GB system. Potential GB system well configurations, injection and production scenarios and ultimate heat recovery for economic value are noted. Download preprint publication.

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"Robe Talks": US Shale Oil/Gas Recovery: A Drastic Change is Required

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April 3, 2020

Gang Han’s Hydraulic Fracturing Community (HFC) "Robe Talk" series kicked off this week. The purpose of his series is to keep technical professionals engaged and stimulated while most are staying at home. The first presentation was US Shale Oil/Gas Recovery: A Drastic Change is Required, by Sidney Green.

Read the pdf. (Click on slide numbers in red to move between presentation text and slides)

Webex hosted and presented by Dr. Gang Han, @ARAMCOServices, and ARMA.

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EPI Presents on Cluster Spacing Effects at 52nd ARMA Conference in Seattle

June 1, 2018

”Early Time Fracture Growth and Cluster Spacing Effects” by S. Green, G. Xu, B. Forbes, J. McLennan, G. Green, D. Work is accepted for the ARMA Annual Symposium in Seattle.  Sidney Green will present the paper during the podium presentation, Tuesday June 19th, in the Technical Session track - Hydraulic Fracturing Geomechanics II.

ABSTRACT: The injection of large quantities of treating fluid and proppants during fracture stimulation of low permeability formations causes local insitu stress changes, sometimes referred to as stress shadowing or stress interference. Recent procedures for improving production have led to closer spacing of clusters, from approximately 80 feet spacing a few years ago to about 20 feet spacing now, or less in some cases. That is, there are now about four times the number of potential fracture initiation locations (clusters) per foot of lateral well, while the sand pumped per foot of lateral continues at about 1700-1800 pounds per foot. With four times the number of clusters and the same mass of sand pumped, the stress disturbance of one cluster to another cluster has changed. This paper addresses the near wellbore stress interference effects for close cluster spacing. Numerical simulations are presented using a robust linear-elastic 3-D hydraulic fracturing computer code that calculates fracture ‘bending’ and fracture width change due to stress interference. The stress interference that changes the fracture width is the most significant because the resistance to fracture fluid flow at high velocities in these narrow channels is the primary driver of stress shadowing fracture geometry changes. Continue..

Has energy storage kept pace with renewable technology?

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June 25, 2017

Solar energy, and to a lesser extent wind energy, have moved ahead of the ability to manage their intermittent nature without similar growth in cost effective energy storage.

On June 24, Sidney Green chaired a meeting on large-scale energy storage that could be used to support solar and wind electricity.  The meeting was supported by the National Science Foundation, Geothermal Energy SedHeat Program with cooperation of the American Rock Mechanics Association. 

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The small invited group considered a concept of solar thermal underground energy storage. 

Underground storage competes with surface heat storage in tanks, and is more complicated then surface storage in some ways.  However, for large-scale Gigawatt hours of energy storage, underground storage may be more practical and cost effective at least in some situations.

The full Report is available online here.

Dr. Sau-Wai Wong at EPI

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June 7, 2017

EPI hosted Dr. Sau-Wai Wong, geomechanics expert and consultant June 6-7, 2017.  Dr. Wong during his EPI visit, spoke at the SPE Salt Lake Section meeting June 7th. His presentation, "Past Achievements and Recent Research Activities in Petroleum Geomechanics" described key achievements in practical petroleum geomechanics over the past few years. The SPE meeting was held at the University of Utah EGI office in Research Park. 

Dinner afterwards. Sau-Wai Wong, Sid Green, John McLennan