Research / Development & Innovation
Research / Development & Innovation
Germany, Iceland, Netherlands, Lithuania, UK, Denmark
GFZ Helmoltz (DE)
Delft Technical University (DE), ISOR (IS), TNO (NL), Wellservices BV (NL), Imperial College (UK), Geoterma UAB (LT), Gatmos TC (LT), Denmark Technical University (DK)
New technologies and concepts for geothermal energy are necessary to increase the number of economically viable geothermal resources, including in hard rock and high temperature/pressure conditions, and to have a demonstrably smaller environmental footprint to existing technologies.
Radial water jet drilling (RJD) technology will be tested as a method to increase inflow into insufficiently producing geothermal wells. SURE will investigate the RJD technology for deep geothermal reservoir rocks at different geological settings such as deep sedimentary basins and magmatic regions at the micro-, meso- and macro-scale.
Radial water jet drilling uses the power of a focused jet of fluids, applied to a rock through a coil inserted in an existing well. This technology is likely to provide much better control of the enhanced flow paths around a geothermal well and does not involve the amount of fluid as conventional hydraulic fracturing, reducing the risk of induced seismicity considerably. RJD shall be applied to access and connect high permeable zones within geothermal reservoirs to the main well with a higher degree of control compared to conventional stimulation technologies.