What is Sedimentary Geothermal?
Thermal Energy from Large Areas in the US
When one thinks of geothermal, steaming Yellowstone National Park pools come to mind. Those geothermal resources occur near volcanoes and mountain regions. Sedimentary geothermal is the heat created by thousands of feet of sediment that have filled up basins in the western and central United States over geologic time. These sedimentary basins are often areas of historic and current oil and gas development, where we can install geothermal equipment on oil and gas wells for renewable energy generation.
Transitional Energy brings geothermal technology to the oil and gas industry to generate clean, baseload power from heat waste.
The heat from the water in these basins can be used to generate electrical power subject to some minimum temperature and flow rate thresholds. This geothermal energy from heat waste can generate up to 1 MW per well of carbon negative geothermal power to reduce GHG emissions by 50g CO2 eq/kWhe (Geothermal Technologies Office). This power is emissions free and Transitional Energy provides near real-time data access and dashboard to quantify GHG emissions reductions and inform future development of geothermal resources.
Map Credit
The map above is utilizing an SMU well temperature dataset and EIA transmission grid data. It shows wells which produce water at least 150 degrees Fahrenheit. Each dot represents thermal electrical potential.