Harnessing Low-Grade Geothermal Energy

GEHT_Logo_Earth_inside_lightbulb

Background:

In recent years, there has been a momentous push to decarbonize our power generation or at the very least, achieve carbon neutrality. California’s Senate Bill 100 (SB100) formalizes these goals on a state level and establishes policies to meet California’s future energy demand with zero-carbon resources, where at least 60% will come from eligible renewable resources [1]. Although there have been many proposed solutions, such as Southern California Edison’s Pathway 2045, all mostly rely on solar and wind as the primary renewable resource; however, as was seen in the recent rolling blackouts, these technologies are not the most resilient for baseline power production and therefore must be supplemented with other power generation sources [2]. The historical answers to this issue have been coal or gas-fired power plants. With increasing concerns surrounding the environment, we now know these are not a viable option and thus, new, resilient power generation systems must be explored and implemented if we are to meet current and forecasted energy demand while simultaneously minimizing our impact on the environment.

Such an energy source exists and it is sustainable, environmentally friendly, and technically feasible; namely, Geothermal Heat Sources to produce consistent, clean and usable energy. Even with low-end estimates, there is enough energy internally in the Earth to provide over 17 billion years of electricity [3]. This design project aims to explore the different methods currently available for harnessing the energy beneath our feet, to compare and contrast these methods, and to modify, improve and/or design a new method to effectively harness geothermal energy. Current Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) are capable of operating at temperatures as low as 100℃ which brings almost all of the U.S. landmass into the realm of energy extraction [4].

Goals and Objectives:

  • Current
    • Produce in-depth analysis on the current methods of extracting geothermal energy
    • Write code to facilitate modeling and analysis of small-scale EGS technologies for a proper downselection process
    • High-Level cost analysis to determine accessibility and scalability of proposed EGS technologies
  • Future
    • Detailed engineering analysis to determine which EGS technology can best be improved for small-scale applications
    • Prototype a design that produces as much electricity as a residential solar or wind instalation
    • Prototype planning and testing
    • Redesign according to Results

Team Contacts:

Heriberto N. Garza: hngarza@uci.edu

Derek M. Waite: dwaite@uci.edu

Sponsor/Advisor:

Dr. Derek Dunn-Rankin: ddunnran@uci.edu

Dr. Alice Chien: chieny@uci.edu

 

 

[1] CA SB100

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB100

[2] Pathway 2045

https://www.edison.com/content/dam/eix/documents/our-perspective/201911-pathway-to-2045-white-paper.pdf

[3] How Long Could the World Run on Geothermal Power?

https://www.wired.com/story/how-long-will-earths-geothermal-energy-last/

[4] Advanced Power Plants for Use with HDR/Enhanced Geothermal Technology

https://pangea.stanford.edu/ERE/db/IGAstandard/record_detail.php?id=5017

Project status: 
Active
Department: 
MAE
Term: 
Fall
Academic year: 
2020-2021
Author: