Norway:

Nextdrill Project Drills for Heat, Deep in the Earth Below Norway (Gemini)

SINTEF’s project manager Alexandre Kane checks out a drill-bit
that the Swedish company Sandvik has developed for mining
operations. (Photo Courtesy SINTEF/Thor Nielsen)

Backed by a troop of industrial and technology companies the Nextdrill research project, is going ahead at full speed to develop drilling tools that will make it profitable to exploit true geothermal heat.

The immediate aim is to drill wells to depths of five to six kilometres, where we encounter temperatures that are high enough to allow the heat to be used for district heating and electricity generation.

The Nextdrill project members – Norwegian research organisation SINTEF, the Swedish company Sandvik and Germany’s H.C. Starck – are collaborating on the development of materials for a drill-bit with a long working life.

Another participant is the Norwegian technology company Resonator, which is in the process of developing an electric percussion rotary drill, a tool that crushes rock by dealing it hammer-like blows as the drill-bit turns. Electrical operation offers the possibility of remote control and more energy-efficient drilling systems than technology based on today’s pneumatic or hydraulic systems.

In the course of this year the Nextdrill project will carry out its first small-scale drilling trials near Ås in Akershus County, south of Oslo. In August and again in November, a specially designed version of Resonator’s percussion rotary drill will tackle hard rock. It will be fitted in turn with commercially available drill-bits and bits made of the highly wear-resistant materials that are being developed by the project.

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