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De-risking Enhanced Geothermal Energy Projects: Insights from the DEEP Project

Description: 

Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) require balancing seismic ;risk and economic output, and past failed EGS projects demonstrate that this is a delicate balance to achieve. To develop an EGS, induced seismicity, which is not an undesired by-product but a necessary tool to create a productive heat exchanger, needs to be adequately managed and controlled. These are the key goals of DEEP (Innovation for De-risking Enhanced geothermal Energy Projects, www.deepgeothermal.org), an international collaborative project aimed at establishing a full-scale, real-time test bench for innovative seismic monitoring, processing, seismicity forecast modelling, and risk assessment. DEEP develops largely automated, data-driven and fully probabilistic approaches to assess seismic hazard and risk, so-called Adaptive Traffic Light Systems (ATLS). The primary field test site of DEEP is the DOE's Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) in Utah (USA). Key to the project is also the definition of next-generation good-practice guidelines and risk assessment procedures to reduce commercial costs and enhance the safety of future projects, We will provide an update on the progress of the DEEP project, highlighting results from the past FORGE stimulations in 2019 and 2021. We will show the performance of different event detection and location algorithms using machine learning and Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS), as well as a performance assessment of forecasting models, performed both on synthetic and real data. We also will present how ATLS approaches will be tested and validated in upcoming stimulation at FORGE, and how this knowledge can be used to optimize seismic safety procedures for future EGS projects, such as the upcoming one in Haute-Sorne (Switzerland).

Session: De-risking Deep Geothermal Projects: Geophysical Monitoring and Forecast Modeling Advances

Type: Oral

Date: 4/18/2023

Presentation Time: 10:15 AM (local time)

Presenting Author: Stefan Wiemer

Student Presenter: No

Invited Presentation: 

Authors