Performance, Cost, and Financial Parameters of Geothermal District Heating Systems for Market Penetration Modeling under Various Scenarios

The U.S. Department of Energy Geothermal Vision (GeoVision) Study is currently looking at the potential to increase geothermal deployment in the U.S. and to understand the impact of this increased deployment. This paper reviews 31 performance, cost, and financial parameters as input for numerical simulations describing GDH system deployment in support of the GeoVision effort. The focus is on geothermal district heating (GDH) systems using hydrothermal and Enhanced Geothermal System resources in the U.S.; ground-source heat pumps and heat-to-electricity conversion technology were excluded.

Parameters investigated include:
1) capital and operation and maintenance costs for both subsurface and surface equipment;
2) performance factors such as resource recovery factors, well flow rates, and system efficiencies; and
3) financial parameters such as inflation, interest, and tax rates.

Current values as well as potential future improved values under various scenarios are presented. Sources of data considered include academic and popular literature, software tools such as GETEM and GEOPHIRES, industry interviews, and analysis conducted by other task forces for the GeoVision Study, e.g., on the drilling costs and reservoir performance.