| Abstract |
The geothermal potential of hot sedimentary basins has been studied for some Western US States (Johnston et al, 2020). There are gigawatts of potential geothermal power production from low enthalpy sedimentary basins in U.S. and Canada, based on drilling new dedicated geothermal wells. There are additional challenges in sedimentary basin plays including over and under pressured resources, artificial lift and parasitic load optimization, high salinity brines, and multi-use basins with competing resources such as oil and gas. Some of these challenges are also opportunities that can change the economics of projects. Most studies to date rely on simple heat in place or power density calculations applied to sedimentary resources. These methods fall short in appropriately characterizing the opportunities. Johnston et al used the GEOPHIRES v2.0 tool developed by the National Renewable Energy Lab (Beckers 2019) to evaluate the techno-economics of the Marys River Basin in Eastern Nevada. RESPEC used GEOPHIRES-X, the 2023 successor to GEOPHIRES v2.0, to study another US sedimentary system. The Python open-source tool proved its versatility through simple customizations to adapt to geo-pressures and custom unit cost assumptions. The additional metrics for project economics and the use of a Monte-Carlo analysis to predict the probabilities of possible outcomes were also very handy. We also discuss the possible benefits of using GEOPHIRES for pre-feasibility evaluations, feasibility studies and due diligence evaluations. It is our opinion that the methodology used for this study could be extended to other hot sedimentary geothermal systems. |