Williston Basin Geothermal Energy Industry Growth Plan

A White Paper for the Energy and Environmental Sustainability Grand Challenge

Will Gosnold Harold Hamm School of Geology and Geological Engineering

Kris Keller Institute for Energy Studies

Bradley Myers School of Law

Scott T. Johnson SysDynX

Geothermal resources are characterized by temperature, depth, and application

Geothermal Types• Flash Plants – restricted to specific geological settings

• Steam at T ≥ 150 ºC 12.636 GW globally 27 % in USA

• EGS – exists everywhere, but economics are not competitive• 13.2 PW (1015) to a depth of 10 km in USA

• Binary – can use 90 ºC ≥T ≤ 150 ºC • ORC power

• Direct Use –• multiple heat applications

• GSHP –• space heating

EGS

Some Geothermal Facts

• Renewable

• Stable and reliable

• Dispatchable baseload

• Fossil fuel free

• Small footprint

• Lowest LCE of alternatives to fossil fuels

• High capital investment• But, there is no fuel cost

• Capital cost for a natural gas plant is 22% of the LCE and fuel cost is 67% of the LCE

• Over the 30-year life of a plant, geothermal is a sound investment compared to natural gas

• Risk is high

COAL SOLAR THERMAL PHOTOVOLTAICS WIND GEOTHERMAL

3642 35613237

1335

404

THIRTY-YEAR LAND USE COMPARISONSQ. M/GWH

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

Levelized Costs ($/MWh)

Geothermal Energy in Sedimentary Basins Reduced Risk

• Conduction dominated thermal regimes with temperatures already known or easily obtained from various data sources• BHT and heat flow data provide understanding of the thermal regime• The temperatures are typically less than 150 °C and development requires

binary systems

• The resource is widespread• Exploration and drilling costs are minimal

• The fluids for heat extraction exist throughout sedimentary aquifers• Geological data on aquifer properties is readily available• Oil and water production data indicate water availability• Oil reservoir data and published analyses indicate permeability and porosity

Geothermal Perspective of the Williston Basin

• The temperatures, depths and hydrologic properties of the geothermal resource are well documented (Gosnold et al, 2012, 2015, 2016; Crowell and Gosnold, 2015)

• The heat content of the basin is 6.56 x 1020 J (3.17 x 1012 kWh).

• The accessible energy in six major geothermal aquifers in the Williston Basin is on the order of 1.14 x 1019 J. (1.82 x 1014 kWh).(This study, Crowell and Gosnold, 2015)

• North Dakota’s total annual energy consumption is 5.7 x 1017 J. (1.58 x 1011

kWh) (EIA, 2016)

• If this the resource were fully developed, it could supply all of North Dakota’s energy needs.

Types of Geothermal Development in Sedimentary Basins

Slide courtesy of Tim Reinhardt, US DOE

ND Heat Flow based on combination of BHT and 34 equilibrium temperature logs in boreholes

mW m-2

100 km

0

- 4 km

- 2 km

Heat flow, thermal conductivity, and stratigraphy permit accurate temperature determination

Red dots are BHTGreen dots are “corrected” BHT

Thick blue line is an equilibrium temperature logRed-gold triangles are calculated temperatures

𝑞 = 𝜆𝛿𝑇

𝛿𝑧

𝑇 = 𝑇0 +𝑖=1

𝑛

𝑞𝑧𝑖𝜆𝑖

T - K

λ – W m-1 K-1

q – mW m-2

Temperature and depth contours Deadwood Fm.

Temperature and depth contours Madison Fm.

Temperature and depth contours Red River Fm.

Temperature and depth contours Dakota Group.

The UND-CLR binary power plant demonstrated that the low temperature resource can be produced economically. $3000/kW LCE $0.6 kWhProduction is from the Lodgepole formation: 2.6 km deep, 98 °C -103 °C

Pumps at 735 m and 967 m

Power Conversion Options• Scalable ORC systems

• 50 to 250 kW modules

• Pratt & Whitney

• Ormat

• Calnetix

• Recurrent (Kalina Cycle)

• Turboden

• Electratherm

• Climeon

The Calnetix machines installed at the UND-CLR demonstration site produce 250 kW

The Climeon system could produce approximately 1 MW with the available water

Resource baseTechnically recoverable

EconomicallyRecoverable in 2010

EconomicallyRecoverable in 2018

The economics of geothermal energy improve with technological advance

CONFIDENTIAL

MODULAR AND FLEXIBLE

Enhanced efficiency

Off-the-shelf

Cost effective redundancy

Adaptive Control System

A great opportunity for distributed power

• 2,600 MW additional power needed to produce Bakken and Three Forks by 2032

• Existing power for ND-MT is from 6 coal or gas-fired power plants on Missouri River.

• Current supply for the boom is from diesel, propane & produced gas at 5 X grid power cost

The Distributed Power Corridor Concept

• Temperatures require binary power development

• Although the cold climate is good for air cooling for the condenser phase, water cooling yields best power efficiency and economics

• The 7 °C (45 °F) bottom water of Lake Sakakawea is an source excellent for heat rejection for the ORC

• High geothermal fluid volumes accessible by drilling horizontal wells• Average volume from the CLR water flood approximately 23 l/s (400 gpm)

• Good temperature vs. depth data along the course of the Missouri River

• DOE CREST model yields $0.06 per kWh with repurposed wells and $0.08 per kWh with new wells

Injection well

Production well

1 km lateral open hole wells in the geothermal aquifer

Well spacing 1 to 2 kmTo be determined

1 MW binary power plant

Distributed binary power well field

Lake Sakakawea

Open hole lateral

Communities:

Four Bears Village

Mandaree

New Town

Parshall

Twin Buttes

White Shield

Sanish

Population is approximately 6,500

Land area is 4,000 km2.

Assume 1 MW would support 650 homes.5 MW could make Fort Berthold energy independent.

Temperatures in the Dakota Fm. are 76-89 CTemperatures in the Lodgepole Fm. are 111- 129 C

District Energy System - Piping

Fresh Water Supply from Canal or Well

Supply cool water in summer

Irrigate with warmed water in summer

Circulating water pump

Home w/ heat pump

Summer Operation of the District Energy System

Cool water in

Warmed water out

sprinklers

A heat pump uses half or less of the energy to cool a house that a conventional air conditioner uses

Direct Use and District Heating

District Energy System – PipingMaintain at ~60°F

Geothermal Supply Well

Supply 170°F geothermal water in winter.

Geothermal Injection Well

Inject cooled water in winter

Circulating water pump

Winter Operation of the District Energy System

Home w/ heat pump

warm water in

Cooled water out

A heat pump uses 30% or less of the energy to heat a house that a conventional furnace uses

Science and engineering yet to be determined

• Target formation temperatures logs

• Target formation permeability

• Water quality

• Well spacing

• Well orientation

• Water cascaded use and disposal options. • REEs in the water?• Treat water for other use

If this the resource were fully developed, it could supply all of North Dakota’s energy needs.