By Rick Allis, Director, Utah Geology Survey (GRC Member)
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has begun a large geothermal project, known as FORGE (Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy), to establish a field laboratory aimed at advancing and developing new technologies
for geothermal power generation.
The goal of the FORGE project is to apply these hydrocarbon technologies to hot, tight rock to create fractured zones around geothermal wells. Cold water can be injected into one well so that it moves through the fractures and becomes heated before being intercepted by an adjacent well (the production well), releasing its heat at the surface in a power plant.
This technology is sometimes called Enhanced, or Engineered, Geothermal Systems.
