Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Dr Isabelle Chambeforte: Geothermal Scientist and GNS Science lead on the exploration of supercritical geothermal technology

Transcript

Dr Isabelle Chambeforte: Geothermal Scientist and GNS Science lead on the exploration of supercritical geothermal technology · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The government is funding further research into supercritical geothermal technology.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: What is that, Well, it's like geothermal power generation, only
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: drilled deeper into the earth where the temperature and the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: pressure are both higher. If the research works out, it
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: could provide more power than the Huntly power station. It's
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: just the country's largest a GNS and NB are leading
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: the work. Doctor Isabel Chamberfore is the lead geothermal scientist
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: and she's with us this morning. Good morning, good morning,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: thanks for being with me. First of all, how deep
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  Speaker 1: do you have to drill to get the hottest stuff?
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: So actually not really done, much deeper than your normal
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: gil term all. Well, because in the TVZ of a
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: normal heat transfer if you want all the TVs that
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: what I call the TVZ is this vulcany carry out
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: stop if you want, so you're going down to a
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  Speaker 2: kilometer deeper, two kilometer deeper, which you're wrong, four sol
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: to six kilometer.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: How much hotter is it there and how much more
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  Speaker 1: energy can you get out of it?
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: So the heat is transported with the water that's circulated
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  Speaker 2: in the crush, right, So it's generally around three hundred
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: and thirty degree maximum in your normal geutomal systems. So
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: it is by going a little bit deeper, so a
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: kilometer or two deeper, we can reach temperature both four
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: under degree programs or for fifty and that is a
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: lot more energy that we can access per well.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: And presumably you will need different machinery, stronger machinery.
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: Do we have it? So yes, it's been drilled both conditions,
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: has been drilled in the past, and not in New Zealand,
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: but in the world, in Iceland, Japan or the US.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: I've already drilled in those conditions, a real rig that
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: can go at those deaths. It's really common in all
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: in gas fields. So we do have the drill rig
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: that can drill that. The key challenge is to design
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: a well that will be sustaining those higher temperature and
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: pressure conditions. But it is an engineering problemingly and not
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: necessarily a true science problem to be solved.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: All right, Thanks so much for that, Doctor Isabelle chamber
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Four with US genius science lead for geo Thermal. The
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: government basically Shane Jones and who is it, Shane Jones
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and Judith Collins giving sixty million dollars to try and
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: drill deeper and get three times as much energy out.
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge.
• 2:52
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• 2:56
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