Definition of Engineered Geothermal Systems
Engineered Geothermal System (EGS) is a relatively new technology with tremendous potential for providing heat and power, as well as helping to address the issue of reduction of CO2 in the environment. The technology is complex, and it has taken some time for a series of research projects globally to understand the physical processes involved, to develop supporting technologies such as high temperature instrumentation, numerical models, and to validate the concept. In view of EGS being a new technology with very limited operating history, the issue of sustainability is difficult to address. It is important to assess the sustainability issue based on the current state of knowledge whilst also recognizing the fact that some existing data are inconclusive. Observations and conclusions reached at many of the EGS sites worldwide have been incorporated to give a broad-based qualitative assessment and to reduce the bias.
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Abbreviations
- Breakthrough time:
-
The time taken for a tracing element (chemicals) to travel through a specified media (a reservoir) indicating a degree of channeling or dispersion of injected fluid passing through the reservoir.
- EGS:
-
Enhanced or Engineered Geothermal system; a geothermal system, a geothermal system engineered to mimic a natural system (hydrothermal) so that energy can be extracted from hot rocks at great depth.
- Granite:
-
Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granites usually have a medium- to coarse-grained texture and can contain radiogenic material which produces heat in the rock.
- Igneous rocks:
-
Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or lava. Igneous rock may form with or without crystallization, either below the surface as intrusive (plutonic) rocks or on the surface as extrusive (volcanic) rocks.
- In situ stress:
-
Forces that exits in the crustal plate and the three mutually orthogonal components are categorized as vertical, minimum horizontal, and maximum horizontal. It plays a very important part in the development of an EGS reservoir.
- Joint network:
-
Term used to collectively describe fractures within a rock mass characterised by features such as fracture orientation, density, spacing, length and mechanical stiffness.
- Permeability:
-
Permeability is defined by as a measure of flow through spacing between the two faces of a fracture open enough to allow fluid flow through it.
- Reservoir:
-
A matrix of fractures are manipulated by injecting fluid under pressure for fractures to slide against each other, leaving a permanent increased aperture in the fracture so that fluid can pass through it to recover heat.
- Shear failure:
-
A terminology used when two sides of a fracture slip over each other with minor permanent displacement.
- Tensile failure:
-
A terminology used to create a new fracture by splitting the rock mass using fluid injection. The fracture remains open while the pressure is applied but closes once the pressure is taken off, leaving no residual gap between the two new faces of the fracture.
- Thermal drawdown:
-
A process whereby the reservoir is progressively cooled over time by the passing through of cooler re-injected fluid.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank all the funding agencies that helped to establish and support the Soultz project, including the European Commission, Agence de l’Environnement et de la Maîtrise de l’Energie (France), the German Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit within the frame of the “Zukunftsinvestitionsprogramm,” the Projektträ-ger of the Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) (UK), and the Members of the EEIG “Exploitation Minière de la Chaleur.”
The authors would also like to thank all the teams who contributed to the success of the projects at Rosemanowes and Soultz for over 30 years of research. In particular, the authors would like to give special acknowledgement to Perry Moore (SII) who died on March 21, 2003, in Kazakhstan, and who played a significant part in the success of the Rosemanowes and Soultz projects.
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Baria, R., Mortimer, L., Beardsmore, G. (2013). Engineered Geothermal Systems , Development and Sustainability of. In: Kaltschmitt, M., Themelis, N.J., Bronicki, L.Y., Söder, L., Vega, L.A. (eds) Renewable Energy Systems. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5820-3_235
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