One alternative energy source that is not often used in the U.S. is geothermal energy, and now Cornell University researchers are working to try to make it a feasible and widespread option. They began drilling a test borehole in June of this year and will run tests before implementing geothermal energy campus-wide. Jeff Tester, Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems at Cornell University, joins Closing Bell to discuss the project, the purpose of running a test before implementing geothermal energy, how this energy source can be used, and more. 

Closing Bell

Cornell University Drills Test Borehole to Help Develop Geothermal Energy

Welcome back to closing bell here on Cheddar news. Now as America looks for alternative energy sources, it could be overlooking one that's right below us. Geothermal energy. Yeah, Cornell University researchers are testing a way to make geothermal energy feasible as they first try out an underground borehole observatory on their campus. So what could the findings lead to joining us now is Jeff tester, professor of sustainable energy systems at Cornell University. And Jeff tell us about this borehole test and what is unique about your campus that lets you run this test. Thank you, ken for inviting me here today. To begin with. I guess the question we could all ask is why are we doing it? And so this is the first phase of a multi phased project that will examine whether or not we can actually heat the campus with base load thermal energy taken deep from the earth. Later stages would drill additional wells will still use this so called observatory as a monitoring hole, but it is the main purpose is to teach us about what is underground and how we can take advantage of the properties of the rock we're going to encounter as well as the temperatures and to link them into Cornell's district heating system. So why start with just a test, why not just go full on automatically adopt thermal energy on your canvas well, like anything you do underground. Usually whether it's exploring for oil and gas, looking for minerals, searching for geothermal resources. The first step usually is an exploration well and that's what this effectively is. We've given it a formal name calling it the Cornell borehole observatory, if you can see behind me, that's an aerial shot. A shot taken recently of the site itself. And so that's what we're doing right now is carrying out this early exploration. So it's not unusual to do that, any kind of subsurface engineering, which is what this is a part of. So what will mark a successful trial run of this test? Great question. So what we have down below us is a series of different types of rocks. The geologists know a lot about this region because it's been explored for quite some time. But what we don't know is the detailed properties of these different rock formations that were encountered in early analysis of wells that have been drilled in the new york region, We've identified about four different locations deep in the Earth, starting at some seven or 8000 ft going down deeper, slightly deeper than 10,000 ft. That looked promising in terms of their permeability. Whether we can actually flow water through this rock, whether or not it will have the right temperatures and we're aiming for temperatures that would be in the range of about 80 C or so, that's a little below the boiling point of water, but plenty hot enough to provide the thermal energy we need for the buildings on campus, the laboratories etcetera. So if successful, what are the next steps on the Cornell campus. Right, So if we can prove that we have at least one of these formations that looks promising, we will drill another set of wells to begin with a well pair that would involve an injection well and a production well and water would be circulated through this underground formation in order to extract the heat that's stored there for us naturally as a part of the earth's crust. We think that will be a way in which we could de risk the first phase of this. Like any kind of subsurface development, whether it's oil or gas or geothermal. You start with this progressive phased approach where we first look at an exploration well then followed by an initial test and if that test proves to be successful in terms of temperatures, the rock permeability of the ability to flow water through it for long periods of time and to keep the temperature hot enough, we would proceed to drill a set of additional well pairs and we don't need too many to take care of the whole campus. So what sort of model could other universities and even cities learn from your test? Well, we're optimistic that because a lot of places around the country right now, whether they're states or regions have set pretty aggressive goals to decarbonization their energy systems and many of those locations, I think there are about 16 states now are in cold regions of the United States were heating plays a major role in the carbon footprints of those locations. And that's certainly true at Cornell and would be true in New England across the northern tier of the U. S. So any place that has the potential to extract thermal energy at these kind of deaths that could be useful in a district heating system could work but de risking it in terms of the subsurface is the critical first step wherever you happen to go. The other piece that's extremely important is you have to have an infrastructure that would allow you to circulate hot water through the buildings and likewise other other all right entities that you'd have to heat, whether they're laboratories or gymnasiums or municipal buildings, public buildings, private buildings, it could be a hospital or municipal center that's associated with the state government would be logically an early target. Lots of universities have district energy systems, certain locations within cities do as well, but most of them are all if you will powered by burning fossil fuels, combusting fossil fuels and then putting the heat that they gain from that combustion into a circulating steam or hot water system. Alright, so let's say everything goes swimmingly. Everything's great test comes back positive. Everything looks good. How long until Cornell kicks the heat on and that heat is being transferred from Jermell thermal geothermal energy. Right? So let's first take a look at the goal which is the campus has committed and the university is committed to try to decarbonization. The entire energy system by 2035. That's not very long until we get there. So clearly a progressive program of drilling additional wells and testing those would have to be done in short order. That also has a fairly large price tag to it. So we're going to have to be sure that not only are we reaching the kind of conditions we expect will work, but are we able to secure the appropriate support to carry this forward? How much are we talking about? Well, that's another tough question to come up with. Like, I'm sure a lot of the news you've been having today is dealing with the supply chain issue associated with virtually everything. So that also affects the cost of drilling. So we're in the process of obviously learning right now in real time exactly what it's going to cost to drill this well and it will help us in designing these other wells. So we're certainly talking about an investment that would be in the order of multiple millions of dollars, but you have to look at it as a long term investment to provide heat for a sustainable length of time, not just for a day or for a season, but for many years. So what we've done is we've looked at the level ist cost of heat and compared that with the level ized cost of what we're doing now, which is burning natural gas in a fairly modern combined cycle cogeneration plant And we think we can compete with that at the kind of levels under which geothermal systems are producing fluids right now. So we're optimistic that if we can get through this initial stage, particularly with that initial test, well that there would be plenty of partners who could join a program with us to develop this first system while I'm sending good vibes, I hope that the test goes as it should. Jeff Tester, professor of sustainable energy systems at Cornell University. Jeff. Thank you.