Geothermal energy

Record-Breaking Enhanced Geothermal System Designed for Project Cape, Utah

This paper describes modeling work performed to design fracturing treatment and spacing for wells in the Project Cape enhanced geothermal system in Utah.

Fig. 1—Fracture geometry and proppant placement from the baseline simulation.
Fig. 1—Fracture geometry and proppant placement from the baseline simulation.
Source: URTeC 4245311.

Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) seek to use hydraulic fracturing to achieve high flow rates from wells drilled in formations with high temperature but low permeability. Project Cape in Utah is an ongoing EGS project with a planned capacity of 400 MWe. In an initial circulation test, the first production well drilled for the project flowed at more than 100 kg/s (54,000 B/D), a record for an EGS project. In this paper, modeling work performed to design the fracturing treatment and spacing for the wells is described.

Introduction

In EGS, hydraulic stimulation is used to improve the flow rate that can be achieved through geothermal wells.

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