"I am in full support of R&D that provides electrical power at lower risks and lower costs," said Douglas Hollet, director of geothermal technologies in Washington, D.C., who attended the forum.
Douglas Blankenship, manager of the geothermal research department at Sandia National Laboratories, who gave an overview of current status of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS). He outlined both its tremendous long-term potential due to the vastness of the hot dry rock resource and its challenges in creating artificial reservoirs. Brian Anderson, associate professor at West Virginia University, added that it is difficult to attain closed circulation between injection wells and production wells, which results in the loss of working fluid and can lead to beneficial sequestration of the CO2 into the earth when using CO2 as the working fluid. Both Doug and Brian concluded that EGS technology will not be commercially viable for several years, but its long-term potential is very promising.
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