GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IN NORWAY - THE GOVERNMENT'S PERSPECTIVE

Wednesday September 1st, 0910-0940

SESSION 1. POWER PRODUCTION

Wednesday September 1. 0940 - 1100

Geothermal power production on Iceland - state of the art and remaining challenges 

Árni Magnússon, CEO Iceland GeoSurvey (ÍSOR) 

September 1. 0940

Research on Iceland's energy resources goes back to the 18th century. Systematic energy research by Icelandic government institutes started in 1945 and has been carried out continuously ever since. Iceland GeoSurvey and its predecessor have from the start played a key role in this work. These activities of the Icelandic power industry have resulted in about 66% of the primary energy use in Iceland has its source in geothermal energy. Generating electricity with geothermal energy has increased significantly in recent years. Geothermal power facilities currently generate 25% of the country's total electricity production.

There are several, state of the art high temperature powerplants in Iceland, dating back to the 1970´s, generating from geothermal resources. These are Hellisheiði Powerplant (303 MWe), Nesjavellir (120 MWe), Reykjanes (100 MWe) Þeistareikir (90 MWe), Svartsengi (75 MWe) and Krafla (60 MWe).

Direct use applications have as well been a very important part of geothermal utilisation in Iceland, where district heating has been the main beneficiary of hot water production along with balneology, aquaculture, drying of foods, greenhouse growing etc, either through co-generation with power production or directly from low temperature resources all over the country.

The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) is a study of high temperature hydrothermal systems in Iceland in the attempt to increase the output from conventional geothermal fields. It is a collaborative effort by a consortium of Icelandic power companies and the Icelandic government, formed to determine if utilizing supercritical geothermal fluids would improve the economics of power productions, reaching temperatures above 450°C at about 5 km depth. A standard 2.5 km deep high temperature geothermal well power equivalent to approximately 5 MWe while an IDDP well may be expected to yield up to 50 MWe. 

Technology development for sustainable exploitation of geothermal energy from high temperature wells

Sturla Sæther, Equinor, Hieu-Nguyen Hoang, SINTEF

September 1. 1000 

For sustainable exploitation of geothermal energy, robust and cost-efficient casing systems are an absolute requirement. However, the harsh operation conditions encountered in the high-temperature (HT) geothermal reservoirs are very challenging and are detrimental for the well integrity. Improper materials selection and design principles may lead to serious failure events, and loss of the production well, as reported in many HT geothermal well projects. In order to solve the current challenges, a novel design tool, Casinteg, was developed in the HotCaSe project for efficient global well analyses. The developed tool aims to provide a better understanding of the influence of the high temperature operation conditions on the well integrity and to bridge the knowledge gap in the current design standard codes. The tool is currently used to evaluate robust well design solutions for the planned IDDP3 well where the operation condition up to 450⁰C can be expected.

Silica solubility in deep geothermal wells

Morten Tjelta, IFE

September 1. 1020 

Silica scaling is an important issue in deep geothermal energy wells and knowledge about solubility is important for scaling prediction and mitigation strategies. However, there is limited data available at high temperatures in the presence of salt. This work describes an experimental setup developed to study solubility at high pressures and temperatures (up to 500 °C and 350 bar). Benchmark experiments show quartz solubility values in agreement with literature data.

Simulations and analysis of induced seismicity for a hydraulic stimulation test at the Reykjanes geothermal field, Iceland

Eirik Keilegavlen, UiB

September 1. 1040 

The ERiS project was a joint project of the University of Bergen and NORSAR with collaboration with Equinor and international partners, with central partners in Iceland. The project aimed at improved understanding of low-pressure stimulation of enhanced geothermal systems. To that end the project undertook an interdisciplinary study of a stimulation experiment in the Reykjanes geothermal field in Iceland. The aim of the study was to construct a numerical simulation model based on state-of-the-art numerical tools and compare simulation results with seismic observations of induced events.

We present the workflow used to combine local and regional geological data, seismic observations and information gained from the construction and initial operation of the injection well. The resulting simulation model incorporates fluid flow, deformation of the host rock and sliding of the main faults in the reservoir. The availability of such a simulation model allowed for experimentation with scenarios for fluid flow parameters. The presentation will emphasize the critical role of integrating data from different sources, as well as challenges and opportunities relating to interdisciplinary work.

SESSION 2. INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

Wednesday September 1. 1200-1320

Information on joint Geothermica and Smart Energy Systems call

September 1. 1200 

The GEOTHERMICA Era-Net has in cooperation with the network Joint Programming Platform Smart Energy Systems (JPP SES) announced a joint call for proposals for transnational projects with the title "Accelerating the heating and cooling transition". Information will be provided on the joint call.

Per Arne Karlsen, Research Council of Norway

DEEPEN - a GEOTHERMICA project

Carsten Sørlie, Equinor

September 1.  1220

GEOTHERMICA (www.geothermica.eu) brings together owners of European and US national geothermal research and innovation programs. GEOTHERMICA's objective is to promote research and innovation in geothermal energy to make geothermal energy reliable, safe, and cost-competitive. GEOTHERMICA combines the financial resources and know-how of 20 geothermal energy research and innovation program owners and managers from 16 countries and their regions. The DEEPEN project is one of 7 projects receiving funding under the 2nd call from GEOTHERMICA. The focus for the DEEPEN project is the high resource risk and high upstream exploration costs as key barriers to scaling up geothermal energy development globally. Reducing the upstream risk has, for a long time, been a priority area of the sector on several fronts. The DEEPEN project aims to contribute to this goal by increasing the probability of success when drilling for geothermal fluids in magmatic systems. This will be achieved by developing improved exploration methods and an improved framework for the joint interpretation of exploration data using the Play Fairway Analysis (PFA) methodology. The Norwegian contribution to DEEPEN by Equinor and NORSAS is funded by the Research Council of Norway. The presentation will provide an introduction to GEOTHERMICA as an arena for collaborative research and innovation and an overview of the DEEPEN project.

Lower emissions from geothermal power generation by capturing them for either reuse or storage, GECO H2020 project

Bergur Sigfússon, Reykjavik Energy/Carbfix

September 1. 1240 

GECO h2020 is an innovative EU funded research project which aims to provide a clean, safe, and cost-efficient non-carbon and sulfur-emitting geothermal energy across Europe and the World. With demo sites in Iceland, Germany and Turkey and partners located in France, Italy, Spain, Norway, Turkey, Germany, UK and Iceland, it builds upon the success of the recently completed CARBFIX project. 

SEE4GEO Geothermica project

Kirsti Midttømme and Walter Wheeler, NORCE

September 1. 1300 

Being able to identify water-filled fracture networks is essential for the design and operation of open geothermal systems. Traditional seismic imaging techniques fail to resolve fluid-phase properties at the scale required for targeted drilling, while purely electromagnetic approaches typically provide limited, low-resolution constraints on the rock structure. The goal in the Geothermica SEE4GEO project is to assess the use of seismoelectric effects (SEE), which arise from seismic-to-electromagnetic conversion in naturally charged porous media with a certain degree of fluid saturation.

SESSION 3. IMPROVING COST EFFICIENCY AND ACHIEVEING SUCCESSFUL PROJECTS

Thursday September 2. 0940-1100

Geoop - Bringing execution to ideas and realising geothermal projects

Bill Harrar, GEOOP

September 2. 0940 

We are driving geothermal energy forward. The path to successful projects is narrow and has its share of barriers. We have masterminded the hashtag #500MWin2030 which we use to guide us in dealing with all of the stakeholders influencing projects. We will share our views and our findings on how to develop successful geothermal projects. 

New Applications for Geothermal Developments

Korneel van der Meer, Huisman

September 2. 1000  

In September 2021, a new test well will be drilled at the Rijswijk Center for Sustainable Geo-energy, a test facility for geothermal developments, using a newly developed Enhanced-Casing Drilling system with a unique, relatively simple, full-mechanical (automation-ready) Rotary Steerable System. Composite casing will be installed in the completed well, allowing for new (logging) data evaluations and a composite section in the BHA is used as a see-through window for (EM-)MWD data communications.

During the real environment drilling test, a camera system will be deployed that acquires data that can be used for both formation evaluation and drilling optimization. This digital mud logging system takes full advantage of the digital age, acquiring massive amounts of data, optimally being used for enhanced, safer, and faster drilling of the wells of the future.

In the presentation, the application of the above-mentioned technologies will be discussed as well as the integration of those at the test center and applicability to geothermal environments.

Deep geothermal energy in Svalbard

Malte Jochmann, Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani AS

September 2. 1020  

Subsurface temperatures in Svalbard are high compared to mainland Norway, with measured geothermal gradients of 25 to 55 K per km. Longyearbyen is among the places in Svalbard with the highest measured gradients. In our talk we will present the status of an ongoing project targeting the geothermal heat supply of a school building in Longyearbyen, based on a DBHE (Deep Borehole Heat Exchanger) with a depth between 1000 and 2000 m. The concept study is conducted by Store Norske, GTML, and UNIS. We will present our plans to meet the challenges related to subsurface geology and permafrost, and present our vision for future geothermal energy supply in Svalbard.

Innovation in Underground Thermal Energy Storages with Borehole Heat Exchangers - BHEsINNO" (EEA Poland/Norway grant)

Mohsen Assadi, UiS

September 2. 1040 

Geothermal energy and heat storage underground have potential to impact energy transition towards carbon restricted energy solutions considerably. The main goal of the BHEsINNO project is to establish international collaboration and knowledge transfer to utilize synergies between the project partners and deliver excellent outcome quality.

SESSION 4. HEAT STORAGE AND ENERGY SYSTEMS

Thursday September 2. 1220-1320

Wesselkvartalet - open well hybrid geo-energy system

Manon Van Goethem, Ruden

September 2. 1220  

Wesselkvartalet in Asker is unique by providing geo-energy and storage with open groundwater wells in bedrock. The project utilizes 18 deep groundwater wells up to 400 meter in depth and 98 shallow wells to store that energy for peak loads. Combined with this unique approach is a detailed study into the geology of Wesselkvartalet performed to optimize the geo-energy system.

Pilot-project for de-icing with deep energy wells, Oslo Airport.

Thilo Theloy, GTML

September 2. 1240  

A summary of the project, its findings, and the potential for direct use of heat from deep energy wells in different applications.

Borehole Thermal Energy Storage systems - a key solution for sustainable energy in polar regions?

Rasmus Bøckman

September 2. 1300  

Renewable energy from wind and solar systems has in recent years developed into the cheapest source of energy. The obvious challenge with these sources, especially in small grid systems, are the periods where production and consumption does not correlate. In colder regions heating is often the main component of the energy consumption and by solving the "bridging problem" with a BTES (Borehole Thermal Energy Storage) system it is possible to increase the portion of renewable energy in the system.