2025: AI-aided Drilling for Deep Geothermal Development
For more than 15 years, a multidisciplinary team of Cornell researchers has been working toward developing a deep geothermal system to heat the university’s Ithaca campus. To support that goal, this project will develop an algorithm to optimize the alignment of the lateral wells that would be drilled in a deep geothermal system. In particular, the research team will quantify the uncertainty associated with reservoir permeability – a critical question for enhanced geothermal design, because insufficient permeability leads to non-profitable heat flow rates, and localized high permeability presents a risk of flow short-circuiting. Rapid, data-informed well designs would increase the economic potential of enhanced geothermal systems.
Investigators: Chloé Arson (Cornell Engineering/Earth and Atmospheric Sciences), Yunan Yang (Arts and Sciences/Math)