Advanced Wells

Using its expertise in drilling and lean practices, NREL partners with industry to identify ways to reduce drilling costs by as much as 50%.

Declining oil prices in the late 1990s led to investments in drilling in an attempt to increase efficiency and decrease costs. The effort, which applied the principles of lean manufacturing to drilling, was successfully implemented by the onshore petroleum industry in the U.S. with a focus on standardization, optimization, and automation. The application of lean methodology to drilling realized cost savings of up to 50% and time savings of 15%–70%—even in hard-rock areas.

The largest savings have come from lean drilling processes, which can incur up to twice the planning man-hours of a traditional process. Successfully implementing lean methodology to the drilling process requires a significant change in mindset as well as the full support of all levels of a company, including managers, drilling contractors, operators, subsurface personnel, and drilling engineers.

NREL is working with geothermal operators to bring lean processes to the geothermal drilling industry. Time and experience have shown that significant savings are possible. If widely implemented, these savings could significantly increase profit margins and spark significant growth in the global geothermal industry.

Publications

Geothermal Drilling and Completions: Petroleum Practices Technology Transfer, NREL Technical Report (2018)

Geothermal Drilling: A Baseline Study of Nonproductive Time Related to Lost Circulation, 42nd Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering (2017)

Completion Design Considerations for a Horizontal Enhanced Geothermal System, Transactions (2015)

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From new materials to new form figures, from packaging to reliability and validation, we are expanding capabilities for high-temperature power and sensing electronics.

Geothermal drilling is plagued by nonproductive time related to lost circulation, drill bit trips, and inefficiencies due to low rates of penetration and damaging drilling dynamics. Drilling time can be reduced by 50% by optimizing geothermal drilling through new sensing and electronics technologies. Downhole, high-temperature, and extended-range sensing downhole sensors can measure position, vibration, weight on bit, rotational speeds, and rock mechanics to facilitate drilling with higher efficiency, more reliability, and more range. Current downhole sensor technology is not reliable over 150°C, while anticipated drilling environments for geothermal surpass 400°C. The key to realizing lower drilling costs is the development of robust sensor packages that are survivable and provide data to improve efficiency.

NREL's research covers all aspects of sensor and power/signal electronics, including materials, contact metallurgies, and packaging. These components integrate to provide a downhole electronic platform capable of withstanding temperature, mechanical, and chemical stressors.

Patents

High Temperature and High Pressure AlGaN/GaN Electronics

Composite Packaging for Extreme Environments

Publications

Stable Contact Development for High-Temperature β-Ga2O3 Device Operation, APS March Meeting (2023)

Development of a 250 Degree C 15kV Supercascode Switch Using SiC JFET Technology, 2022 IEEE 9th Workshop on Wide Bandgap Power Devices and Applications (2022)

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NREL's material science expertise spans the energy spectrum, allowing our scientists to leverage learning across industries.

Novel Cements

In the field of ceramics, our researchers have developed novel cements that emulate the durable ancient Roman cements of two millennia ago. These cements leverage the high temperatures of the subsurface (and some unique feedstocks) to form crystalline products that behave as a robust matrix with low permeability. The combination of low permeability, thermal resilience, and resistance to chemical attack indicate that this new (old) class of material may be integral in the future of geothermal cementing.

Casing Materials

Metal casing material is important for ensuring leak-free, constant geothermal production with no impact to shallow groundwater sources. NREL has developed processes to harden mild steel, which will limit the impacts of abrasion. In typical mild steel, scratches can act as a nucleating point for corrosive processes, so limiting abrasion is important for extending the life of inexpensive metal components downhole.

Also important to extending casing lifetime is limiting the steel's exposure to working fluid. NREL researchers are developing novel polymer-oxide composite materials that are extremely chemically stable and effective even above 350°C. The goal is to coat steel components with the chemically resistant composites to make casings that have the strength and cost of steel with the inertness of state-of-the-art alloys. Coupling robust cement backing with hardened and encased steel casings could greatly extend the lifetime of geothermal wells and make them more economically competitive and technically viable.

Publications

Thermomechanical Modeling of High-Temperature Bonded Interface Materials, Die-Attach Materials for High-Temperature Applications in Microelectronics Packaging, Springer Nature Link (2019)

Metal-Organic-Inorganic Nanocomposite Thermal Interface Materials With Ultralow Thermal Resistances, American Chemical Society Applied Materials and Interfaces (2017)

Reliability of Emerging Bonded Interface Materials for Large-Area Attachments, IEEE Transactions on Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology (2016)

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Oil and gas wells have been constructed and operated across the United States and have significant potential to coproduce thermal energy and be repurposed for geothermal energy systems, such as district heating system. Research projects at NREL have covered a range of topics within this area, from data collection to impact analysis.

Capabilities

• Subsurface characterization
  Characterize geothermal resource potential in oil and gas fields—such as geothermal gradient, geological formations, and geochemistry—and develop 3D conceptual geological and thermal models supported by legacy oil and gas data, exploration reports, well logs, and current field tests to assess locations of subsurface structures and heat reserves
  
  
• Unconventional geothermal drilling and well operations
  Apply knowledge of petroleum drilling technologies, such as directional drilling, to model hot brine production from conventional oil well designs
  
  
• Reservoir modeling
  Develop reservoir models informed by the characterized subsurface, thermophysical properties of local rocks, and known reservoir properties to simulate long-term thermal energy production, production temperature, and thermal drawdown
  
  
• Economic analysis
  Analyze economic metrics—such as capital cost, net present value, and levelized cost of heating—of the geothermal system repurposed from oil and gas wells 
  
  
• Impact analysis
  Evaluate the grid and other impacts of geothermal energy
  production from oil and gas wells

Publications

Geothermal Reservoir Simulation Analysis in Support of Electricity Co-Production Feasibility Study at the Blackburn Oil Field, Nevada: Preprint, Geothermal Rising Conference (2024)

Evolution of a Geological Model for Co-Producing Electricity at the Blackburn Oil Field, Nevada: Preprint, Stanford Geothermal Workshop (2024)

Techno-Economic Feasibility of Geothermal Energy Production Using Inactive Oil and Gas Wells for District Heating and Cooling Systems in Tuttle, Oklahoma, Energy Conversion and Management (2024)

Grid Resilience Analysis on Geothermal District Heating and Cooling Implementation Alongside Four Existing Oil and Gas Wells in Tuttle, Oklahoma, Geothermal Rising Conference (2024)

Impact of Geothermal District Heating System on Flexibility of Microgrid in Tuttle, Oklahoma, Geothermal Rising Conference (2024)

Techno-Economic Analysis for a Potential Geothermal District Heating System in Tuttle, Oklahoma, Geothermal Rising Conference (2023)

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