Deep direct-use (DDU) systems are an emerging technology area in the renewable energy sector that draw on lower temperature geothermal resources to directly heat and cool facilities rather than using geothermal heat to produce electricity. Deeper than geothermal heat pumps and other conventional direct-use systems, DDU technology could allow for greater opportunities for geothermal development throughout the United States. DDU systems can be coupled with Thermal Energy Storage (DDU-TES), an emerging technology where summer heat and waste heat are stored in brackish or saline, slow-flowing aquifers for later extraction during the winter.

The US Department pf Energy's Geothermal Technologies Office recently provided grant funding to six (6) research and development projects led by the private sector, universities and national labs to pursue feasibility studies of large-scale DDU systems. This study presents a techno-economic evaluation of DDU awardee data using the GEOPHIRES tool, which combines resource models with cost correlations and levelized cost models to estimate the capital and operation and maintenance costs, instantaneous and lifetime energy production (in MWth), and overall levelized cost of heat (LCOH) for geothermal direct use applications. This study presents LCOH results from the six (6) DDU awardee projects, as well as an updated comparative analysis of geothermal direct use in the US vs. internationally.


Geothermal Deep Direct Use: A Techno-Economic Analysis of 6 Case Studies

Division / Sponsor:
Advanced Energy Systems Division (AESD) & Solar Energy Division (SED)

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/ES/ES2020/volume/83631

ES2020 - Virtual Conference 

Supporting the need among researchers worldwide for additional online and multimedia content, ASME now offers the ASME Conference Video Collection. This platform will collect and provide long-term access to conference presentation videos, encompassing all technology areas within ASME's technical conference and events program. About 30,000-40,000 engineers across all mechanical engineering and related disciplines participate in ASME conferences each year. This includes authors of approximately 6,000 to 8,000 technical papers published by ASME, the majority of whom also submit video presentations for our virtual conferences. The video collection will be available as an add-on to existing product packages or as a separate subscription.