Two new workshops for the geothermal industry took place this November, the Society of Petroleum Engineers and Geothermal Rising hosted a workshop on Mutual Challenges and Solutions in Oil & Gas and Geothermal, and the Southwest Research Institute hosted a workshop on Geothermal Energy Machinery Systems (GEMS). Overall, The Mutual Challenges and Solutions workshop was about subsurface geothermal development, and the GEMS workshop was about above-ground facilities for geothermal projects.
The Mutual Challenges and Solutions in Oil & Gas and Geothermal Workshop was attended by geoscientists, engineers, chemists, project managers, national labs, and government entities. Presentations covered developments in remote sensing, corrosion prevention, cementing, and policy around subsurface resources. These topics were covered in statistical models and in case studies, with one of the most talked about test sites being the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) site. While the challenges can often be the same, one challenge that is unique to geothermal is the high temperatures that equipment needs to withstand.
The Geothermal Energy Machinery Systems Workshop was attended by engineers, power plant operators, facility managers, professors, and service providers for the geothermal industry. This workshop focused on aboveground operations, converting the harvested heat to electricity. The working fluid at conventional plants can be full of minerals that precipitate out and can clog the turbines used for this conversion. To avoid corrosion in turbines, generators, and compressors the advice is to “Alloy up”.
Both workshops provided a space for professionals in the geothermal industry to collaborate and share their initiatives for furthering geothermal development. MicroThermal Energy looks forward to providing geothermal reservoir data to operators with microseismic monitoring. To reach out to MicroThermal Energy about collaboration, contact Analiese Andersen at aandersen@microseismic.com