4,100 feet underground, scientists test a unique geothermal energy system

A team of scientists has assembled a first-of-its-kind system to help them understand how to harness energy from deep below ground.

The Stimulation and Flow System is the newest “rock star” from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and its partners, designed to investigate how water travels underground through extremely hot rock and subsequently transmits heat to the surface.

The new system is part of the Enhanced Geothermal Systems—or EGS—Collab, a project involving several national laboratories, universities, and industrial partners working to improve geothermal technologies.

The mine, which was once considered the biggest and deepest gold mine in North America, is currently utilized for a variety of scientific purposes. One project is looking into how geothermal energy may one-day power 10 million homes.

The EGS Collab is using the underground facility as a testbed where water and other fluid mixtures will be pumped under high pressure into one of five boreholes—four-inch-wide “tunnels” drilled into the rock—and then pumped out of the other boreholes. The team is studying how the fluids not only break apart the rock between the boreholes but also how they gain heat from the energy stored within the rock—energy that can eventually be pumped above ground to generate electricity.

The EGS Collab’s infrastructure and research is supported by the Department of Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office. The system will provide data for many months, if not years. This project’s findings will aid in the development of new geothermal energy technologies for industry.

“Individually, the components bring in good, useful data,” said Strickland. “Together as one system, the EGS Collab will receive the most comprehensive data to help bring forward a geothermal energy future.”

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