WorldWide Drilling Resource

Geothermal Power Potential in Nevada is Heating Up Adapted from Information by University of Nevada, Reno The Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology made two successful discoveries in the Great Basin using a previously untried method for finding unknown, hidden geothermal resources. Both systems are blind, meaning there are no surface indications of hot water. No previous exploration had been undertaken in one of the areas, and the other area had only seen minor exploration in the past. The play fairway method includes the study of many geological and geophysical attributes of a region, including the location of earthquake faults. “The exploration, the mapping, the analysis, all led us to the top two spots - of perhaps hundreds of potential sites - to drill geothermal wells,” Jim Faulds, director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology said. “Success at two sites provides an initial validation of the methodology we developed, and opens up new possibilities for power generation sites by the industry.” In Gabbs Valley, there is a major subsurface fault intersection. In the Great Basin, most geothermal systems are affiliated with Quaternary faults, which are faults recognizable at the surface that have moved in the past million years or so, a portion of the Quaternary time period. “It’s gratifying to demonstrate positive results of applied science here at the Bureau,” Faulds said. “After several years of research, mapping, and analysis, we’ve identified many promising areas that have great potential for geothermal power. Funds only allowed for test drilling at two sites, but there are dozens of other promising sites that I’m excited about across the region. The two sites, one in southeastern Gabbs Valley and the other in at northern Granite Springs Valley, are now ready for industry to decide on their economic viability.” After determining the best places to drill in 2018, Faulds and his team worked with a crew from the U.S. Geological Survey to drill a series of wells across the geothermal system. Six holes were drilled at both the Gabbs and Granite Springs Valley sites. “We bracketed the system with drilling to better define its size and potential power capacity,” Faulds explained. The Granite Springs site is not as well defined as Gabbs, and finding the center was harder. More drilling might be required to pinpoint it, but both systems are quite hot at relatively shallow depths. Gabbs is 255ºF (124ºC) at 500 feet, and Granite Spring Valley is 203ºF (95ºC) at similar depths for Granite Springs Valley. Geochemical data suggest higher tem- peratures for each site at greater depths. As part of their analysis, Faulds and his team used a few basic machine- learning techniques during the project. They have plans to increase this effort where they will apply artificial intelli- gence and machine-learning tech- niques to geothermal exploration to identify previously unrecognized con- nections between the various datasets. “This is like icing on the cake of our very successful geothermal play fairway project,” Faulds said. “This new project is aimed at facilitating additional discov- eries of geothermal systems in Nevada using machine-learning methods and builds on our previous efforts on geo- thermal play fairways in the region.” Editor’s Note: In between our print issues, the WWDR Team prepares an electronic newsletter called E-News Flash . Based on readership, this was the most popular E-News Flash article of the month. Get in on the action and subscribe today at: www.worldwidedrillingresource.com 40 AUGUST 2019 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® GEO