Geothermal Breakthrough in South Texas Signals New Era for Ercot

https://www.powermag.com/geothermal-breakthrough-in-south-texas-signals-new-era-for-ercot/

39•mooreds•2mo ago

Comments

AtlasBarfed•2mo ago

70-75% is good efficiency. So did they use an existing old oil well? What are the construction costs of this? I mean it's great they built it quickly but I'm wondering if they built it quickly because the digging had already been done.

Joel_Mckay•2mo ago

Have to wonder how they calculated that value... =3

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnot%27s_theorem_(thermodyna...

metalman•2mo ago

oil, and the inevitable gas from even a spent well would be a huge complication, which I think would get a big mention if they had ALL THAT!, worked out, as there are millions of retrofits then availible, right now so.I think they are leveraging tech derived from the "drill baby drill" industry in dry rock, and adding water

Kallikrates•2mo ago

Is this the same "minimal water loss" they define for all the leaking wells in west and south texas that threaten water supplies? https://www.texastribune.org/2025/02/04/texas-leaking-abando...

TheCraiggers•2mo ago

I'm not a geophysicist but it doesn't seem like impermeable rock would "inflate like a balloon" and even if it did, that seems like it would be a pretty bad thing for the surrounding countryside. Given that water infamously doesn't like to compress, I'm at a loss for how this thing actually works.

Does anyone have a better explanation than this article?

dwa3592•2mo ago

I found "inflate like a balloon" a bit confusing/misleading. it's more like the fracture in the rocks expands(slightly) due to the pumping of water- and when the pump is turned off, the fracture goes back to a normal position pushing the hot water up. I am not an expert but I am really bamboozled by the reliability of this bc I imagine the rock/fracture will have to give away after some time(permanent rupture) or they will have to keep expanding the fracture.

potato3732842•2mo ago

It's a crack, not a void or a cave. The crack doesn't actually have significant volume (it probably does but all things considered it's tiny). It's like the space between two stacked bricks. Or maybe it's some permeable material like brick then sand then brick. You pump that full of water and you're basically lifting the bricks with hydraulic pressure. Gravity is what squeezes it back out.

bunabhucan•2mo ago

If you pressurize something "incompressible" like water under a cap of impermeable rock you are to still compressing the water and compressing the surrounding rock. The whole industry of fracking operates on compression rock to the point of fracturing it and forcing open the cracks. At 600-1300 bar water compresses 3-6%. It's the "equivalent" of a reservoir at the height of everest or higher.

RobinL•2mo ago

More coverage of the broader geothermal renaissance: Geothermal’s time has finally come https://www.economist.com/interactive/science-and-technology...

And i found this interesting: https://www.complexsystemspodcast.com/episodes/fracking-aust...

Seems fairly promising

rufius•2mo ago

As a Texan, I can assure you that ERCOT will find a way to add 6 layers of middlemen, over extend capacity, and generally screw it up.

I watched it progressively get worse growing up. I don’t live in TX anymore, but I’ve still got family there and it’s more of the same.

hsnewman•2mo ago

I too moved from TX, never been happier.

calibas•2mo ago

Essentially, repurposing fracking as a method for energy storage.

aaronbrethorst•2mo ago

And generation

jmward01•2mo ago

I wonder if there is the possibility of a technique here to extract the heat by using something that does expand like pumped CO2 instead of water to steam? It is great they are using it for storage though. The more options the grid has for generation, transmission and storage the better.

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