International Finance Corporation has released a new report called “Success of Geothermal Wells: A global study” with data taken from both public and private sources.
According to the report: “The key finding of this report is that overall, for those wells for which status could be verified, 78 percent of wells drilled were successful. In two thirds of the fields in the database, more than 60 percent of wells were successful.”
IFC notes that this is the first global database of wells in geothermal fields which together supply power to 71 percent of the world’s installed geothermal electricity generating capacity, making it the largest database of its kind. This report seeks to gain a better understanding of the probability of drilling a successful well, as well as the factors that go into successful drilling.
The database is compiled from public and independent sources covering the past four decades. It includes a total 2,613 wells with data on (a) completion date; (b) initial and current status; (c) power capacity (MWe); (d) depth; (e) geology type; (f) resource type (temperature/enthalpy); (g) well casing size; (h) success of the well; (i) whether a pump is used on the well; and (j) whether the well has been re-drilled.
This article was originally published in the GEA's Geothermal Weekly and was republished with permission.
Lead image: Geothermal wells via Shutterstock
