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Geothermal Active

By Energy Resources Program April 23, 2019

Geothermal Energy

Geothermal Resources Investigations Project

Mission: to characterize and assess geothermal energy resources in the United States and to work with the Department of Energy and other partners to advance the technologies applied to discover, characterize, and utilize those resources.

Geothermal energy is a significant source of renewable electric power in the western United States and, with advances in exploration and development technologies, a potential source of a large fraction of baseload electric power for the entire country.  The USGS Geothermal Resource Investigations Project is focused on advancing geothermal research through a better understanding of geothermal resources and the impacts of geothermal development.  This is achieved by applying a wide range of research methods to characterize resource occurrences, perform monitoring, and develop resource assessments.  The project team works closely with a number of external collaborators from federal and state agencies, academia and industry on projects throughout the US and internationally (provide link to map of field study areas). 

Overview

Map: Geothermal Resource Study Areas
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
U.S. map showing current Geothermal Resource Study Areas.

Based on current projections, the United States faces the need to increase its electrical power generating capacity by approximately 300,000 Megawatts-electrical (MWe) over the next 20 years. A critical question for future energy planning is the extent to which geothermal resources can contribute to this increasing demand for electricity. Geothermal energy constitutes one of the nation’s largest sources of renewable and environmentally benign electric power, yet the installed capacity of approximately 3000 MWe falls short of the estimated resources. 

The USGS 2008 National geothermal resource assessment (provide link to 2008 assessment) estimated potential power production capacity from identified and undiscovered conventional geothermal resources at approximately 40,000 MWe.  In addition, a provisional evaluation of the potential from Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) was estimated to be approximately 518,000 MWe.  This indicates that substantial geothermal resources are available to contribute to the nation’s electric power mix.

Still, significant questions remain regarding the nature and extent of undiscovered conventional geothermal resources as well as the viability of EGS as a new technology for producing geothermal electric power. This project is focused on addressing these issues as well as producing comprehensive databases of geothermal information compiled in the course of the assessment work, expanding the scope of the 2008 assessment to lower temperatures and other unconventional geothermal resource types, and conducting further research into the nature of geothermal resources in order to develop improved methodologies for future assessments.  

The project addresses key issues related to geothermal resources through a number of activities:

  • Database development - compiling and making publicly-available relevant data from geothermal exploration, development and assessment studies
  • Resource Assessments - developing improved techniques for assessing geothermal resources and expanding the national assessment to cover both conventional and unconventional geothermal resources
  • Hydrothermal field studies - conducting field investigations and modeling to understand the spatial and temporal occurrence, and evolution of targeted, prioritized natural hydrothermal systems.
  • Enhance Geothermal Systems (EGS) – characterizing the unconventional Enhanced/Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) resource base and evaluating the implications of EGS development.
  • Other unconventional resources – studying low temperature and sedimentary basin geothermal resources (from thermal aquifers to deep basin brines) to characterize their resource potential and understand the factors controlling their formation.
  • Impacts of geothermal development - monitoring and modeling the effects of geothermal production including Induced seismicity associated with fluid injection, as well as impacts that expanding production may have on groundwater and vegetation.

 

Research Highlights

Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) used for Geothermal Research.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
September 1-13, 2012, the USGS led a NASA-funded project, where a team of scientists and engineers, collected magnetic data using ground surveys and an aircraft that can fly without a pilot or crew, called an unmanned aerial system, or UAS, to map the geophysics below the surface of Surprise Valley, CA. The UAS shown here is known as SIERRA (Sensor Integrated Environmental Remote Research Aircraft).The Geothermal Project team is leading an effort, in collaboration with NASA Ames and a number of other institutions from academia and industry, developing Unmanned Aerial Systems for collecting airborne data to aid geothermal research. 

 

Image: Akutan Hot Springs
Sources/Usage: Public Domain.
Akutan Island, in Alaska’s east-central Aleutian Islands, hosts the City of Akutan and is home to the largest seafood production facility in North America. It also hosts Akutan Volcano, one of the most active volcanoes in the United States. Read the full story, "USGS Potential Geothermal Resources for Akutan, Alaska."  (Photo by Deborah Bergfeld, USGS)

 

Below are data or web applications associated with this project.

SUTRA model used to evaluate Saline or Brackish Aquifers as Reservoirs for Thermal Energy Storage in the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA

This archive documents five 30-year SUTRA simulations summarized in Burns at al. (2020), and provides output from one short (2-year) simulation to allow verification that the archive model code runs properly. A modified version of SUTRA 2.2 was used to evaluate Reservoir Thermal Energy Storage by simulating layered system conditions (grid spacing varies depending on simulation run time to prevent
By
Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Below are publications associated with this project.

Filter Total Items: 29

National-scale reservoir thermal energy storage pre-assessment for the United States

The U.S. Geological Survey is performing a pre-assessment of the cooling potential for reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES) in five generalized geologic regions (Basin and Range, Coastal Plains, Illinois Basin, Michigan Basin, Pacific Northwest) across the United States. Reservoir models are developed for the metropolitan areas of eight cities (Albuquerque, New Mexico; Charleston, South Carolin
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Water Resources, Arizona Water Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Michigan-Ohio Water Science Center, Upper Midwest Environmental Sciences Center, Upper Midwest Water Science Center, New Mexico Water Science Center, Lower Mississippi-Gulf Water Science Center

Using saline or brackish aquifers as reservoirs for thermal energy storage, with example calculations for direct-use heating in the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA

Tools to evaluate reservoir thermal energy storage (RTES; heat storage in slow-moving or stagnant geochemically evolved permeable zones in strata that underlie well-connected regional aquifers) are developed and applied to the Columbia River Basalt Group (CRBG) beneath the Portland Basin, Oregon, USA. The performance of RTES for heat storage and recovery in the Portland Basin is strongly dependent
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Water Resources, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Washington Water Science Center

Regional patterns in hydrologic response, a new three-component metric for hydrograph analysis and implications for ecohydrology, Northwest Volcanic Aquifer Study Area, USA

Study RegionOregon, California, Idaho, Nevada and UtahStudy FocusSpatial patterns of hydrologic response were examined for the Northwest Volcanic Aquifer Study Area (NVASA). The utility of established hydrograph-separation methods for assessing hydrologic response in permeable volcanic terranes was assessed and a new three-component metric for hydrograph analysis was developed. The new metric, whi
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Water Resources, California Water Science Center

Preliminary report on applications of machine learning techniques to the Nevada geothermal play fairway analysis

We are applying machine learning (ML) techniques, including training set augmentation and artificial neural networks, to mitigate key challenges in the Nevada play fairway project. The study area includes ~85 active geothermal systems as potential training sites and >12 geologic, geophysical, and geochemical features. The main goal is to develop an algorithmic approach to identify new geothermal s
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

An integrated feasibility study of reservoir thermal energy storage in Portland, Oregon, USA

In regions with long cold overcast winters and sunny summers, Deep Direct-Use (DDU) can be coupled with Reservoir Thermal Energy Storage (RTES) technology to take advantage of pre-existing subsurface permeability to save summer heat for later use during cold seasons. Many aquifers worldwide are underlain by permeable regions (reservoirs) containing brackish or saline groundwater that has limited b
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Can geologic factors be predictive for distinguishing between productive and non-productive geothermal wells?

Geologic data are examined to evaluate whether certain geologic characteristics occur in higher abundance or higher magnitude along production geothermal wells relative to non-productive wells. We perform 3D geologic mapping, 3D stress modeling, and fault-slip modeling to estimate fourteen different geologic factors that are hypothesized to control or correlate with well productivity. The geologic
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Geophysical Characterization of the heat source in the Northwest Geysers, California

The Geysers, in northern California, is the largest energy producing geothermal field in the world. Looking to expand capacity, the operator Calpine Corporation developed an anomalously hot (~400 °C at 2.5 km depth) part of the field in the northwest Geysers, including testing of an enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). Though the area is anomalously hot, geophysical methods have failed to adequately
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Which geologic factors control permeability development in geothermal systems? The geologic structure of Dixie Valley

Geothermal systems occur where subsurface permeability and temperature are sufficiently high to drive fluid circulation. In the Great Basin region of the United States, which hosts ~20% of domestic geothermal electricity generation capacity and much of the projected undeveloped and undiscovered resource, crustal heat flow is relatively high, so permeability is the dominant factor controlling the o
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

New data yield new geologic insights at the Fallon FORGE site, Carson Sink Region, Nevada

The geologic structure beneath the Fallon Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) site represents a record of the Mesozoic through Cenozoic tectonism, volcanism, and sedimentation that has affected the Carson Sink local to Fallon, NV. A robust dataset confirms that the lithologic sequence consists of Quaternary through Miocene sedimentary and volcanic rocks resting non-confo
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Discovery of a blind geothermal system in Southern Gabbs Valley, western Nevada, through application of the play fairway analysis at multiple scales

The Great Basin region is capable of generating much greater amounts of geothermal energy than currently produced. Most geothermal resources in this region are blind, and thus favorable characteristics for geothermal activity must be synthesized and methodologies developed to discover new commercial-grade systems. The geothermal play fairway concept involves integration of multiple parameters indi
By
Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Geothermal implications of a refined composition-age geologic map for the volcanic terrains of southeast Oregon, northeast California, and southwest Idaho, USA

Sufficient temperatures to generate steam likely exist under most of the dominantly volcanic terrains of southeast Oregon, northeast California, and southeast Idaho, USA, but finding sufficient permeability to allow efficient advective heat exchange is an outstanding challenge. A new thematic interpretation of existing state-level geologic maps provides an updated and refined distribution of the c
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Water Resources, Oregon Water Science Center

Are the Columbia River Basalts, Columbia Plateau, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, USA, a viable geothermal target? A preliminary analysis

The successful development of a geothermal electric power generation facility relies on (1) the identification of sufficiently high temperatures at an economically viable depth and (2) the existence of or potential to create and maintain a permeable zone (permeability >10-14 m2) of sufficient size to allow efficient long-term extraction of heat from the reservoir host rock. If both occur at depth
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Water Resources, Oregon Water Science Center

Below are data or web applications associated with this project.

Western United States Geothermal Favorability

This map shows identified medium and high temperature geothermal systems and relative favorability for additional systems in the western United States.

By
Energy Resources Program