LESSON LEARNED: COSO - Geothermal Resources Council · LESSON LEARNED: COSO Andrew E. Sabin, PhD,...
Transcript of LESSON LEARNED: COSO - Geothermal Resources Council · LESSON LEARNED: COSO Andrew E. Sabin, PhD,...
LESSON LEARNED: COSO
Andrew E. Sabin, PhD, PG Geothermal Program Office, US Navy
California Geothermal Forum: A Path to Increasing Geothermal Development in
California October 20, 2016
4 4
GPO exploration sites
Salton Sea
region, CA
Hawthorne Army Depot, NV
NAS Fallon, NV
Guam
Tularosa Basin, NM, DOE Play Fairway
7 7
Sensible royalty structure
•Consider both parties interests
• Ideal is staged royalty structure
• Incentivizes contractor
•Long-term viability of project
10 10
Plan for water augmentation
•Assume it will be required
•Have infrastructure in place
•Permitting well ahead of time
•Make sure injection capacity exists
11 11
Drill deep early
•Drill deep early
•All steam
production as
long term
strategy is not
sustainable
•Larger capital
investment up
front
•But drilling costs
go up
12 12
Drilling and development
• Injection v. production well design. Pinpointing injection to
specific depths needs to be a consideration in injection well design.
•Develop in stages. Understand the chemistry and productivity of
the field before making huge investments in large facilities. Without
this approach, it is easy to overbuild beyond sustainable levels, and
one may become subject to constant retrofits and high capital outlays
after the projects have been built.
•Enthalpies and gas Weren’t really considered useful as
management tools initially. The better understanding of these
characteristics has informed decisions on injection, HP to LP well
conversions, and turbine configurations.
13 13
Efficiency thoughts
Consider sooner than later:
–bottoming cycles (esp. when brine
levels are high)
–Solar augmentation for parasitic load
–Solar hybrid
–Meq
14 14
Partnering/relationships, Pt. 1
•Partner with experience
personnel with a proven
track record.
•Geothermal tends to fail
the elevator speech test
(subsurface and plant
operations)
• It should not be treated
as a “science project
(e.g., EGS, some binary,
etc.).”
15 15
Partnering/relationships, Pt. II
•Develop synergistic
relationships
•Focus on resource
•Have a GPO
17 17
Andrew E. Sabin, PhD, PG
Geothermal Program Office, US Navy
[email protected] 760.939.2700
719.373.3531
Thank you