Global Geothermal Challenge

1
Global Geothermal Challenge

• Project Description
• Lawrence Molloy
• Foundation for Geothermal Innovation
• www.geothermalinnovation.org
• The Lemelson Meeting Report (link)

2
Description

• The Global Geothermal Challenge is an incentive
  prize to focus innovation on meeting the
  technical gap of a robust high temperature
  downhole geothermal pump.
• The Prize
• Awarded in 2015
• US 10 Million
• Advance Market Commitment for 100 units

3
Incentive Prizes

• Prizes are well suited to technical challenges
• Discrete
• Is an event

• Orteig Prize
• Lindbergh in pursuit of a hoteliers dream
• Space Prize
• US 10 Million purse
• US150 Million private investment
• Automotive Prize
• Over 50 automotive companies have been started

4
What Prizes Can Do

• Identify excellence -
• competition often brings the best to the top.
• Influence public perception-
• geothermal must overcome its position as the
  unknown renewable.
• Focus a community
• engineers, technologists, energy developers and
  policy analysts need to apply their skills and
  focus to geothermal.
• Identify and mobilize new talent
• the geothermal intelligentsia is retiring. New
  blood is needed.
• Educate and improve skills
• the motor itself is an integral part of the
  energy equation in our nation. It is time to
  bring engineers around to this larger challenge.
• Mobilize capital
• advanced market commitments for pumps will
  generate investment well beyond the capacity of a
  straightforward research grant.

5
Prize Scenario

• Achievable
• Conforming to the laws of physics
• Economically feasible
• Capable of being manufactured
• A stretch (to distinctly advance stalled
  categories)
• Impactful for the targeted industry - the
  hydrothermal proposition is not enough
• Attract new professionals to the field

6
Current Stakeholders

• Geothermal Developers
• Ormat, AltaRock
• Major Pump Companies
• Baker Hughes Centrilift
• The Woods Group
• Schlumberger (Redda Tentative)
• Industry
• Hot Dry Rocks Limited, SAIC , PermaTools, AmWest
• Government
• U.S. Dept. of Energy, Icelandic Interests,
  Australian Committee of IGPT, Senator Harry Reid
• Organizations
• GRC, GEA, Google.org, Bullitt Foundation

7
Who We Are

• The Foundation for Geothermal Innovation is a
  Californian 501c3 Non-Profit Corporation
• Established with the mission of accelerating the
  commercialization of geothermal innovation
• Houses the Global Geothermal Challenge
• FGI will administer the prize
• Technical Advisory Committee
• Graeme Beardsmore, Alex Richter, Charles Baron,
  et al.

• Team
• Lawrence Molloy, Exec. Director
• Engineer, former Federal Official
• Michael Lindsay, Prize Director
• Ex - XPrize Foundation
• Genomics Prize Space Prize
• Jane Kang
• Counsel
• Former Diplomat
• Terri Walters
• Former Clinton Appointee
• 10 years with NREL

8
What we are doing

• Administering a Technical Competition
• An objective, independent entity serving industry
• Focused on meeting a key need for Geothermal
• Drawing in New Players and New Professionals
• Educating around the Forgotten Renewable
• Providing a Rallying Point for the Geothermal
  Community

9
The Technical Gap

• Multiple Studies have identified the absence of a
  reliable pump
• MIT Study
• DOE MYRDD 2015
• Sandia EGS Study
• IGPT

• Lineshaft Pumps
• Limited by Depth
• Limited by Power
• ESP
• Limited by Temperature

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DOE MYRDD 2015

• Downhole pumps capable of withstanding EGS
  conditions while sustaining sufficient EGS flow
  rates do not yet exist
• By 2015, improve the performance of downhole
  pumps, especially ESPs, to operate at
  temperatures of 275C, mass flow rates up to 80
  l/s, setting depths as great as 2 km for well
  bores 6 5/8 to 10 5/8 and operating at pressures
  up to 200bar.

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Prize Alternatives

• Drilling
• Major Cost
• Current industry capacity is 12,000 meters 600
  C
• Geology site specific, Reproducibility issues
• Drill bits, casing, hard rock, new rock
  penetration methods
• Sensors
• Lower cost, longer life
• Power Conversion Technologies
• Heat Transfer Performance surface challenge and
  broadly faced in the energy industry. Low
  temperature heat recovery.
• Reservoir Management
• Goal is production flow rates (at 20 l/s, needs
  to increase to 100 l/s)
• Unique Geology, Reproducibility issues
• Learning the art

12
Process

• Idea Conceived August 2007
• Concept Developed late 2007/early 2008
• Industry Validation mid-2008
• Initial Funding sought
• Lemelson Meeting, Feb 2009
• Release of report

13
The Lemelson Meeting

• Wed, February 12th, 2009
• Stanford Faculty Club
• Held in conjunction with the annual Stanford
  Geothermal Workshop
• A one-day technical design meeting attended by
  two dozen industry experts.
• The assignment was to define the performance
  characteristics of a next generation down hole
  high temperature pump.

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Design Criteria

• Diameter
• Pumping capability
• Serviceability/lifetime
• Variable flow rate
• Operating temperature
• Ability to withstand thermal stress

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Evaluation Criteria

• Ability to monitor downhole performance and
  health of the pump
• Ease and time required for deployment
• Serviceability/lifetime
• Efficiency
• Capital cost
• Ability to manufacture and market the pump

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Lemelson Design Target

• Be deployable through 13 3/8 inch (34 cm), 72
  pound casing
• Capable of operating in 200 225C (395 -
  437F) geothermal fluids
• Flow of at least 60 l/sec (950 gpm)
• Operate with at least 300 psi pump head
• Maintain 750 hydraulic horsepower
• Operate reliably without failure for 3 years
• Able to operate at a variable rate of flow
• Will sell x units at y

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The Big Pump Issues

• Diameter is the only design constraint
• Time to failure is the true metric
• The High Temperature, High Power Output Pump
  Market is currently too small to interest Pump
  Companies

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Lemelson Findings

• Pump Companies are interested in power, but not
  temperature
• Geothermal companies are interested in
  temperature
• Deployment is not a concern for developers
• Large industrial conglomerates are interested in
  machinery markets exceeding 100 Million/year

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Innovation beyond Geothermal

• Directing External Interest into the Geothermal
  Space
• Current interest is limited to 3 pump companies
• investment in the forgotten renewable

• Producing Innovation that would be beneficial
  beyond Geothermal
• Theme of great interest to DOE prize enthusiast
• Oil Gas, SAGD, Electric motors, Electric Cars,
  Electric Navy

20
Pump Market Assessment

• Domestic U.S. Analysis only
• Very Conservative Estimates
• 5 MW per well
• 30,000 MW EGS by 2050

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Pump Market Assessment (2)

• Identifies Hydrothermal Market as Key Driver
• Approaching 500 pump sets per year by 2020 at
  US350 Million

22
GIS Analysis

• Spatial Analysis
• Geothermal Sites
• Climate Protection Cities
• Transmission Corridors
• Goal was to identify Green Job Nexus
• 22 High Value Sites identified
• Need to re-calculate with forthcoming USGS data

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Testing Protocols

• The Biggest Issue facing ANY energy incentive
  prize is testing and demonstration.
• Geothermal reservoirs (at elevated temperature)
  are not readily available
• Thermal quenching, cost of productivity,
  deployment, failure response
• Energy costs of testing will be high
• Time to Failure must be confidently measured
• HAST Techniques
• Prizes favor short test periods to maintain
  public interest

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Testing Issues Round
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Advance Market Commitments

• Advance Market Commitments (AMCs) will arrange
  the sale of 100 pumping systems for installation
  and deployment in existing hydrothermal systems
  and EGS sites under development
• 2020 Market is 500 pumps per year at US 360
  Million
• Total market volume must surpasses 100 Million
  per annum
• AMC must be appropriately designed to
• Capture market investment interest but not swamp
  market
• Sized appropriately to drive down cost and spur
  innovation

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Education Component

• Raise the profile of the forgotten renewable
  and spark an interest with students of all ages
  to engage themselves in learning more about the
  category and perhaps entering the field
  professionally a field with a rapidly retiring
  brain trust.
• Education plan targets non-students and students
  from K to MBA and includes
• lesson plans for teachers and parents
• online certification programs
• special content and activities tied into major
  prize events
• Business Plan Competition
• Basic Start up GSHP Business
• Manufacturing ESPs
• Sensor Component market introduction

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Outcome of Competition

• Engineering Schools Engaged
• New Start-ups
• Major Pump Companies re-aligned
• New investment capital
• Mediagenic drilling competition
• Mediagenic pump competition

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Accomplishments to Date

• Delineating and defining a Geothermal Prize as a
  pumping system challenge
• Technical Validation Review by an Expert Panel
• Creation of Advisory Committee
• Market based analysis of the Geothermal Pump
  Market.
• Creation of web portal for executing an incentive
  prize.
• Prize Design
• Technical Design Report, The Lemelson Meeting
• GRC Paper, Geothermal / Electrical Transmission
  Grid Map
• Establishment of FGI as non-profit

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Next Steps - Media

• Recruiting Teams pre-launch
• Two Major Pump Companies are already assembling
  teams
• University Engineering Programs will be a major
  recruitment target
• Full Media Launch - 200K
• A-List Celebrity
• Invested Sponsor
• Educational Programming
• Designated Portal
• Message The forgotten renewable
• K- 12 formatting and scope
• Fundamentals
• Geology, Baseload, Low-energy density, Very low
  CO2
• Approaching Discovery, National Geographic

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Metrics

• New Geothermal Companies
• New Pump Companies
• Re-oriented Academic Programs
• Geothermal Business Plans per year
• New RD Dollars (in millions)
• Media Impressions (in millions)

• JOBS
• A modest 50 MWe power project will generate
• 263 temporary jobs
• primarily engineering and construction
• 85 permanent jobs,
• most within in the 50 mile radius around a
  resource.
• Geothermal is one of the highest job generation
  capacity of any baseload capital energy
  investment
• 1.7 jobs per MWe developed

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Thank You

• The prize purse will be awarded to teams that
  design and build efficient and durable
  production-ready electric water pumps that can
  withstand the deepest of well temperatures in
  excess of 400F (200C).
• www.geothermalinnovation.org
• The Lemelson Meeting Report (link)