XGS is the first company to demonstrate a water-independent geothermal system at commercial conditions and scale. Operations were completed at the Coso geothermal field owned by Atlantica Sustainable Infrastructure and operated by Coso Operating Company, located in the Western Mojave Desert region of California.
XGS designed and executed a workover programme on a well that had been idle in the Coso geothermal field for over two decades. After installing XGS’s proprietary geothermal system, including performance-boosting Thermal Reach Enhancement (TRE) technology, flow testing demonstrated record performance for a water-independent geothermal system, proving commercial economics by sustaining a difference between injection and production temperatures greater than 158˚F (70˚C). Power output from geothermal wells is directly tied to the temperature delta between injection and production fluid.
The extensive operating history was used to verify XGS’s production models, with actual performance falling within 2 percent of predicted values. XGS’s sealed closed-loop system, boosted by TRE, provides unprecedented predictability and active control of field performance versus other geothermal systems, which are subject to complex and continuously changing subsurface reservoir conditions.
“Predictable and sustainable long-term performance has been a thorn in the side of the geothermal industry” said XGS Chief Technology Officer Dr. Axel-Pierre Bois. “XGS’s ability to deliver a highly predictable geothermal system in any subsurface environment, paired with validated power production models, significantly derisks our project development and financing.”
The project further confirmed TRE formulation and placement methods at commercial temperature and depth conditions. Placement of TRE in the well was completed in less than 24 hours.
“This project demonstrates we are not only able to leverage TRE to produce geothermal energy at commercial scale, but also that we can substantially shorten well construction times to deliver large-scale power projects faster” added Dr. Ghazal Izadi, XGS Chief Operating Officer. “With strong demonstrated performance of the TRE system, we can turn our focus to more traditional value drivers such as well design, drilling speed and surface plant cost, leveraging best practices from the oil and gas industry to deliver cost advantage at scale.”
XGS is rapidly advancing a multi-gigawatt and growing project pipeline, underpinned by soaring electricity load growth and demand for new baseload energy supplies. In June, XGS announced a partnership with Meta to deliver 150 MW of geothermal energy to the PNM utility grid to support Meta’s data centre operations in New Mexico.
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