Fervo Energy
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Founded in 2017, Fervo Energy is an energy resource company primarily focused on harnessing heat through engineered geothermal systems (EGS). Co-founded by Tim Latimer, a mechanical engineer by background, Latimer worked as a drilling engineer at BHP until 2015[1]. His departure from the oil and gas sector was driven by a desire to apply techniques observed during the shale revolution[2] to geothermal extraction.[3]
To date, Fervo Energy has been back by over 189 million dollars in equity backed funding and approximately 17 million dollars in non dilutive grants[3]. In Q3 2022, Fervo Enegry received 22 million dollars of series C funding from a multitude of venture capitals.[3] In 2021, Fervo Energy partnered with Alphabet (formerly known as Google) in hopes that Fervo can provide green electricity to Alphabet's cooling centres in the Las Vegas cloud region which met the three demands of Alphabet[4]; baseload, green sourced and nearby.[5]
On July 18, 2023, Fervo Energy announced that their first pilot geothermal plant was successful in generating 3.5 MW (megawatts) of baseload power and consistently maintained flow rates of 60 liters per second (l/s).
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Background Idea: Petroleum Industry applications
By 2005, American oil production had reached a 35-year low, with the United States producing just over 50% of what it had produced in 1976.[6] This significant decline led to a reliance on foreign imports, perpetuating a constant feeling of hesitancy in American markets. However, two key technologies that had been present in the oil and gas industry for some time combined to propel the American oil industry to its fastest growth ever. These technologies are horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as fracking).[6] Put simply horizontal wells were drilled stacked one upon another and then fractures were induced to connect a multitude of horizontal wells. This allowed the surface area of the reservoir to grow improve permeability and thus achieving higher barrel production daily.[6]
EGS Application
According to Latimer, the first time shale fracking methodologies were proposed to work for geothermal extraction was in 2013. It was brought forth by Mark Mclure, who is now a technical consultant at Fervo energy.[3]
Mark Mclure along with his co-author Sogo Shiowaza, believed that the combination of horizontal drilling and fracking first utilized in the petroleum sector has the potential to de risk EGS systems. In simpler terms, as long as you know there is sufficient amounts of heat, the system will produce viable amounts of electrical energy with little risk.[7]
EGS around the world has struggled in technical and economical aspects. On the technical side, vertical wells often encounter thermal short circuiting. This is where shallower induced fractures are better transmitters of water then deeper ones. This is often attributed to less normal stress on the fracture at shallower depth and more viscosity where the deeper fractures have the opposite effects.[7] This causes certain fractures to produce different water temperatures where they meet in the production well, thus they're heating are negated.
Another issue is zonal isolation of fracturing, at shallow depth it is easy to model induced fracturing, however the deeper the whole the less you can model and thus predict where your cracks will form causing random fracture networks and thus less efficiency as some water will be lost in the vast fracture network and wont be sucked up by the production well.
Horizontal drilling of geothermal tackles both of the issues above. By having the injection and production drilled horizontally all induced fractures will sit in the sam normal stress field, same temperature zone and have the same viscosity eliminating the potential of short circuits. To induce optimal fractures, Fervo Energy uses the plug and perforation method, again adopted from the unconventional oil industry. The plug and perforation system isolates perforations from one another to decrease chances of unwanted fracture interactions when the fractures are initiated.[8]
Drilling demonstrations &Nevada Operation
On July 18th 2023, Fervo Energy announced its completion of its first geothermal plant in Nevada,USA. It was the first EGS system in the world to use horizontal wells. The goal of this project was to prove to investors that the horizontal drilling tech can be used in geothermal applications[3]. The two wells reached a True vertical a depth of 8000 feet with 3250 feet horizontal sections. The project succeeded in maintaining drill rates of 75 feet per hour in a combined hard metasedimentary and igneous geology. This put the project in the top quartile of drilling rates of hard rock.[10]
The geothermal gradient was approximately 75C/km. The plant achieved flow rates of 60l/s and generates a consistent 3.5MW of electric power. This is equivalent to approximately enough power to sustain the power needs for 2000 houses.[11]
Cape Station Project
References
- https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com/drilling-starts-for-first-commercial-eavor-loop-in-geretsried-germany
- https://calgaryherald.com/opinion/columnists/varcoe-calgary-company-eavor-prepares-to-welcome-german-chancellor-at-its-new-geothermal-project
- https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voice/news/eavorloop-story-harnessing-earths-energy-greener-transition-2023-11-06_en
- https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0960148120315081
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265127214_EGS_designs_with_horizontal_wells_multiple_stages_and_proppant
- https://fervoenergy.com/technology/#:~:text=By%20installing%20fiber%20optic%20cables,a%20resolution%20never%20before%20possible.
- https://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/pdf/pereports/PhD/Abe2021.pdf?
- ^ Latimer, Tim. "Tim Latimer". Linkedin.
- ^ "The U.S. Shale Revolution". The Strauss Center. Retrieved 2024-02-16.
- ^ a b c d e "Technology - Fervo Energy". fervoenergy.com. 2022-08-09. Retrieved 2024-02-16.
- ^ "Fervo Energy Announces Technology Breakthrough in Next-Generation Geothermal - Fervo Energy". fervoenergy.com. 2023-07-18. Retrieved 2024-02-16.
- ^ "A first-of-its-kind geothermal project is now operational". Google. 2023-11-28. Retrieved 2024-02-16.
- ^ a b c Rapier, Robert. "How The Shale Boom Turned The World Upside Down". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-02-16.
- ^ a b TY - BOOK AU - Shiozawa, Sogo AU - McClure, Mark PY - 2014/01/01 SP - T1 - EGS designs with horizontal wells, multiple stages, and proppant VL - ER -. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265127214_EGS_designs_with_horizontal_wells_multiple_stages_and_proppant.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help); Missing or empty|title=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ "Multistage fracturing using plug-and-perf systems". www.worldoil.com. 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
- ^ "Multistage fracturing using plug-and-perf systems". www.worldoil.com. 2011-10-04. Retrieved 2024-02-18.
- ^ Baujard.; et al. (Febuary 15-17 2017). "Rate of penetration of geothermal wells: a key challenge in hard rocks" (PDF). pangea stanford.
{{cite journal}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Explicit use of et al. in:|last=(help) - ^ "California ISO - Understanding electricity". www.caiso.com. Retrieved 2024-02-18.