INGENIOUS project
Project title: INnovative Geothermal Exploration through Novel Investigations Of Undiscovered Systems (INGENIOUS)
GBCGE project personnel: Dr. Bridget Ayling (PI); Dr. James Faulds (Co-PI); Dr. Anieri Morales Rivera; Dr. Richard Koehler; Dr. Corné Kreemer; Elijah Mlawsky; Dr. Mark Coolbaugh; Rachel Micander; Craig dePolo; Kurt Kraal; Nicole Wagoner; Noah Williams; Quentin Burgess; Mary-Hannah Giddens; Chris Kratt; Chris Sladek
Project collaborators: United States Geological Survey; Utah Geological Survey; Idaho Geological Survey; National Renewable Energy Laboratory; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Raser Power Systems; Geothermal Resources Group; Hi-Q Geophysical; Aprovechar Lab L3C; Petrolern Ltd.; Innovate Geothermal Ltd.; W Team Geosolutions.
Project duration: 4.5 years: 1 February 2021 – 30 June 2025.
Total project funding: $10,000,000
Funding agency: U.S. Department of Energy Geothermal Technologies Office (award number DE-EE0009254 ).
Project goal: The primary goal of this project is to accelerate discoveries of new, commercially viable hidden geothermal systems while reducing the exploration and development risks for all geothermal resources. We stand at a major crossroads in geothermal research and development, whereby major achievements have been made in PFA, 3D and conceptual modeling, resource capacity estimation, ML, the application of advanced geostatistics, and value of information (VOI) analysis, but these techniques have yet to be combined into one over-arching best-practices workflow for a broad region. Our ambitious project proposes to fully integrate these techniques to develop a comprehensive exploration workflow toolkit that includes predictive geothermal PF maps at both the regional- and prospect-scale, detailed 3D maps and conceptual models, and a developers’ playbook. Building on geothermal play fairway (PF) efforts in central Nevada, NE California/NW Nevada, and western Utah, we will expand these study areas to the broader Great Basin region for early stage prospect identification. Concurrently, we will move several blind prospects forward with detailed geological and geophysical analyses followed by drilling thermal-gradient holes (TGH) and possibly slimholes.
Publications to date:
- Ayling, B., Faulds, J., Morales Rivera, A., Koehler, R., Kreemer, C., Mlawsky, E., Coolbaugh, M., Micander, R., dePolo, C., Kraal, K., Wagoner, N., Siler, D., DeAngelo, J., Glen, J., Peacock, J., Batir, J., Gentry, E., Berti, C., Lifton, Z., Clark, A., Kirby, S., Hardwick, C., and Kleber, E., (2022). INGENIOUS – Great Basin Regional Dataset Compilation. U.S. D.O.E. Geothermal Data Repository. https://doi.org/10.15121/1881483
- Batir, J.F., and Gentry, E, (2022). INGENIOUS Thermal Conductivity Measurement Source Categorization. U.S. D.O.E. Geothermal Data Repository. https://dx.doi.org/10.15121/1874222
- DeAngelo, J., Burns, E.R., Gentry, E., Batir, J.F., Lindsey, C.R., and Mordensky, S.P., (2022). Heat flow maps and supporting data for the Great Basin, USA. U.S. Geological Survey data release. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9BZPVUC
- Glen, J.M., Earney, T.E., Zielinski, L.A., Schermerhorn, W.D., Dean, B.J., and Hardwick, C., (2022). Regional geophysical maps of the Great Basin, USA. U.S. Geological Survey data release. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9Z6SA1Z
- Glen, J.M.G., Peacock, J., Earney, T., Schermerhorn, W., Siler, D., Faulds, J.E., and DeAngelo, J., (2022). A Geophysical Characterization of Structure and Geology of the Northern Granite Springs Valley Geothermal System, Northwestern Nevada. Geothermal Resources Council Transactions, v. 46. https://www.geothermal-library.org/index.php?mode=pubs&action=view&record=1034630
- Kreemer, C., and Young, Z.M., (2022). Crustal strain rates in the Western U.S. and their relationship with earthquake rates. Seismological Research Letters. https://doi.org/10.1785/0220220153
- Peacock, J.R. and Bedrosian, P., (2022). Electrical Conductance Maps of the Great Basin, USA. U.S. Geological Survey data release. https://doi.org/10.5066/P9TWT2LU
- Siler, D.L., (2022). Shapefile for slip tendency and dilation tendency calculated for Quaternary faults in the Great Basin. U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9YL58W6
Poster presentations from Geothermal Rising Conference, 2022
- Ayling et al., 2022 (abstract) – INnovative Geothermal Exploration through Novel Investigations Of Undiscovered Systems (INGENIOUS) Project Introduction and Activity Update
- Kraal et al., 2022 (poster) – A Review of Shallow Temperature Surveys for Geothermal Exploration in the Great Basin and their Contributions to Resource Conceptual Models
- Kraal et al., 2022 (abstract) – A Review of Shallow Temperature Surveys for Geothermal Exploration in the Great Basin and their Contributions to Resource Conceptual Models
- Mlawsky & Ayling, 2022 (poster) – Advances in subsurface data discovery: Introducing the new GBCGE Subsurface Database
- Mlawsky & Ayling, 2022 (abstract) – Advances in subsurface data discovery: Introducing the new GBCGE Subsurface Database
- Trainor-Guitton et al., 2022 (abstract) – Temperature Uncertainty Modeling with Proxy Structural Data as Soft Geostatistical Constraints for Well Siting at Granite Springs Valley
- Batir et al., 2022 (poster) – Heat Flow Data: Existing Data Shortcomings and Impact on Deep EGS Resource Assessment
- Batir et al., 2022 (abstract) – Heat Flow Data: Existing Data Shortcomings and Impact on Deep EGS Resource Assessment
- Siler et al., 2022 (abstract) – 3D geologic controls on hydrothermal processes in the northern Granite Springs Valley geothermal area
- Williams et al., 2022 (abstract) – Analysis of a Potential Blind Geothermal System in the Northern Reese River Basin
- Earney et al., 2022 (poster) – Characterizing Structure and Geology with Potential Field Geophysics to Assess Geothermal Resource Potential near Battle Mountain, NV
- Earney et al., 2022 (abstract) – Characterizing Structure and Geology with Potential Field Geophysics to Assess Geothermal Resource Potential near Battle Mountain, NV