June 18 (Renewables Now) - GreenFire Energy Inc on Wednesday said it has completed the world's first field-scale demonstration of closed-loop geothermal energy generation in California.
The pilot project utilised an inactive well at the Coso geothermal field in Coso, Inyo County. The GreenLoop technology showed promise for use in geothermal projects in hot, deep geothermal resources where conventional systems cannot be used.
A report indicates that the closed-loop technology can be used to make some unproductive hydrothermal wells productive. The technology can also effectively use both water and supercritical carbon dioxide (sCO2) as working fluid.
The conclusion was that the GreenLoop technology can run successfully at field-scale, with the demonstration also generating data to verify the Green Fire Energy’s modelling of technical performance in a variety of real-world applications.
The California Energy Commission (CEC) provided a USD-1.48-million (EUR 1.32m) grant and other funders contributed with cash to fund the demonstration.
The company notes that its closed-loop technology can significantly help California to meet its targets for renewable power generation in general and geothermal power in particular.
(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.889)