SIGMA-V experiment moves 750 feet up to learn more about hot rocks 600 miles away
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| Researcher with the EGS Collab SIGMA-V experiment works on the 4100 Level at Sanford Lab. Photo by Nick Hubbard |
“Geothermal extraction requires three things: hot rock, permeable pathways through the rock and fluid to extract the heat,” explained Tim Kneafsey, principal investigator for the Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Collab Project and a staff scientist with Berkeley Lab. “Hot rock is an abundant resource in the US, but it is often missing open pathways that allow you to extract the heat.”
The EGS Collab is working to find better ways to extract heat from the earth’s hot rocks. Under the leadership of Berkeley Lab and Sandia National Laboratories, researchers are creating models that can predict the behavior of geothermal hot spots, before full-scale site research begins at the FORGE laboratory in Utah.
The EGS Collab has used the underground drifts of Sanford Lab as a research and development testbed since 2015. The SIGMA-V experiment has probed the Poorman rock formation on the 4850 Level for years, collecting immense amounts of data.
Now, the EGS Collab is moving their equipment to the 4100 Level, where the rock is slightly different.
